Determining antigen-specific t-cells

ABSTRACT

The invention is directed to methods for determining antigen-specific T cells. In some embodiments, methods of the invention may be implemented by the steps of reacting under interaction conditions one or more antigens with T cells in a plurality of subsets of a tissue sample, such as peripheral blood; sorting antigen-interacting T cells from other T cells; separately sequencing for each subset recombined nucleic acid encoding a segment of a TCR chain from a sample of T cells prior to exposure to antigen and from a sample of T cells isolated based on their interaction with antigen, thereby forming a clonotype profile for the former sample and the latter sample for each subset; and identifying as antigen-specific T cells those T cells associated with a clonotype whose frequency increases in the latter sample relative to its frequency in the former sample.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/242,520, filed Apr. 1, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many crucial immune functions are mediated by T cell receptors (TCRs), which comprise α and β subunits that together bind to a complex consisting of an antigenic peptide and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. It is believed that several important diseases arise from aberrant T cell function: For example, cancers are thought to arise from a failure of immune surveillance, that is, the T cell function of detecting and destroying clones of transformed cells before they grow into tumors; and autoimmune diseases are thought to arise from an over active or aberrant response of T cells to self antigens, Abbas et al, Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Fourth Edition (W. B. Saunders Company, 2000). Consequently, there has been interest both in identifying and tracking antigen-specific T cells and in harnessing T cell functions in several therapeutic approaches for the treatment both cancer and autoimmune diseases, e.g. Molloy et al, Current Opinion in Pharmacology, 5: 438-443 (2005); Morgan et al, Science, 314: 126-129 (2006); Turcotte and Rosenberg, Adv. Surg., 45: 341-360 (2011). Several challenges are posed by these interests: Current techniques for identifying and tracking antigen-specific T cells, especially on a large scale, are difficult and expensive, and likewise, current techniques for identifying and isolating paired TCRα and TCRβ subunits that form a functional receptor are difficult and expensive. In regard to detecting antigen-specific T cells, the use of direct multimer staining requires laborious development of specific HLA-restricted reagents, and other assays, such as ELISPOT, intracellular cytokine staining, and proliferation assays, enumerate antigen-specific T cells based on detection of activation following stimulation of the T cells in vitro with antigen, e.g. Gratama et al, Cytometry A, 73A: 971-974 (2008). In regard to isolating functional pairs of TCR chains, typically a T cell of interest is identified and clonally expanded to enable isolation and analysis of nucleic acids encoding each subunit. Even for a common disease antigen, such as MART-1 in melanoma, the process of single cell analysis, cloning and receptor isolation must be repeated for each patient.

Recently, diagnostic and prognostic applications have been proposed that use large-scale DNA sequencing as the per-base cost of DNA sequencing has dropped and sequencing techniques have become more convenient, e.g. Welch et al, Hematology Am. Soc. Hematol. Educ. Program, 2011: 30-35; Cronin et al, Biomark Med., 5: 293-305 (2011); Palomaki et al, Genetics in Medicine (online publication 2 Feb. 2012). In particular, profiles of nucleic acids encoding immune molecules, such as T cell or B cell receptors, or their components, contain a wealth of information on the state of health or disease of an organism, so that diagnostic and prognostic indicators based on the use of such profiles are being developed for a wide variety of conditions, Faham and Willis, U.S. patent publication 2010/0151471; Freeman et al, Genome Research, 19: 1817-1824 (2009); Boyd et al, Sci. Transl. Med., 1(12): 12ra23 (2009); He et al, Oncotarget (Mar. 8, 2011). Current sequence-based profiles of immune repertoires consist of nucleic acids encoding only single receptor chains; thus, potentially useful information from correctly paired TCRα and TCRβ chains chains is not available.

In view of the above, it would be highly useful for cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune disease treatment if there were available convenient methods for determining functional immune receptors from nucleic acids encoding subunits that have been separately extracted and sequenced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is drawn to methods for determining T cell receptors from subunits selected from separate libraries, particularly antigen-specific T cell receptors. The invention is exemplified in a number of implementations and applications, some of which are summarized below and throughout the specification.

In one aspect, the invention includes methods for determining antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample comprise steps of (a) reacting under activation conditions in a reaction mixture a tissue sample comprising T cells to an antigen; (b) sorting T cells from the reaction mixture into a subset of antigen-specific T cells and/or activated T cells and a subset of non-antigen-specific T cells and/or unactivated T cells; (c) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the antigen-specific T cells and/or activated T cells to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the non-antigen-specific T cells and/or unactivated T cells to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (e) determining antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample as T cells whose clonotype frequencies increase in the subset of sorted antigen-specific and/or activated T cells relative to the frequencies of the same clonotypes in the reaction mixture or the subset of sorted non-antigen-specific and/or unactivated T cells.

In another aspect, the invention includes methods of determining receptors of antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample comprising the following steps: (a) forming a plurality of subsets from a tissue sample containing T cells; (b) reacting under activation conditions the T cells of each subset to an antigen; (c) isolating the antigen-specific T cells of each subset; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor a chains in each subset to provide sequence reads from which a chain clonotypes are determined; (c) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor β chains in each subset to provide sequence reads from which β chain clonotypes are determined; and (f) identifying as antigen-specific T-cell receptors with those pairs of a chain clonotypes and β chain clonotypes that for every subset (i) either both the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in a subset or neither are present in a subset, and (ii) both the α chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in at least one subset and the α chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are not present in at least one subset.

These above-characterized aspects, as well as other aspects, of the present invention are exemplified in a number of illustrated implementations and applications, some of which are shown in the figures and characterized in the claims section that follows. However, the above summary is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment or every implementation of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention is obtained by reference to the following detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1A illustrates diagrammatically steps of one embodiment of the invention for matching TCRα and TCRβ chains from separately sequenced molecules.

FIG. 1B illustrates diagrammatically steps of another embodiment of the invention for determining either TCRα or TCRβ chains that originate from the same T cell or heavy and light chain immunoglobulins that originate from the same B cell.

FIG. 1C illustrates diagrammatically an embodiment of the invention for identifying antigen-specific T cells that interact with a single antigen.

FIG. 1D illustrates diagrammatically an embodiment of the invention for identifying antign-specific T cells that interact with a plurality of antigens.

FIG. 1E illustrates steps of an embodiment of the invention for physical identification of antigen-specific T cells using single cell methodology.

FIG. 1F illustrates a PCA scheme for linking target sequences where pairs of internal primers have complementary.

FIG. 2A-FIG. 2C show a two-staged PCR scheme for amplifying TCRβ genes.

FIG. 3A illustrates details of determining a nucleotide sequence of the PCR product of FIG. 2C. FIG. 3B illustrates details of another embodiment of determining a nucleotide sequence of the PCR product of FIG. 2C.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a tissue sample divided or aliquoted into a plurality of subsets 1 through 10 and examples of different subpluralities of subsets of the plurality.

FIG. 5A-FIG. 5B illustrate an embodiment of the invention for determining T-cells and TCRs specific for a plurality of antigens.

FIG. 6A-FIG. 6B show data for identification of CMV pp65₄₉₅-specific T cell clonotypes from sorted pentamer+ T cells. FIG. 6A shows clonotype frequencies from CMV pp65495 pentamer+ versus pentamer-CD8+ T cells from a characterized CMV responder. The 8 dots (enclosed in dashed elipse 600) indicate clonotypes greater than 10-fold enriched and exceeding a 20-cell equivalent minimum frequency threshold in the sorted (pentamer+) population. FIG. 6B shows that all 8 clonotypes identified in FIG. 6A are enriched in (unsorted) PBMCs from the same individual. The dots enclosed by the dashed elipse (602) indicate clonotypes identified in FIG. 6A.

FIG. 7A-FIG. 7C show data for identification of CMV pp65₄₉₅-specific T cell clonotypes from sorted responding cells following peptide incubation. Clonotype frequencies from sorted responding CD37+ cells following CMV pp65₄₉₅ peptide incubation versus either sorted non-responding CD137− cells (FIG. 7A) or unsorted PBMCs (FIG. 7B). The 9 data points enclosed by dashed elipse (700) in panel A indicate clonotypes greater than 10-fold enriched and exceeding a 20-cell equivalent minimum frequency threshold in the sorted (CD137+) population. Data points enclosed in dashed elipse (702) in panel B indicate those clonotypes identified in panel A. Clonotypes identified in panel A are not enriched in sorted CD137+ cells versus CD137− T cells (FIG. 7C arrows indicating data points corresponding to those enclosed by elipes in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B) following incubation without peptide.

FIG. 8A-FIG. 8B illustrate the overlap between clonotypes identified in pentamer-based and CD137-based assays. In FIG. 8A, the plot shows clonotype frequencies of the 8 clonotypes (enclosed by dashed elipse 800) identified in the pentamer analyses in the clonotype profiles of CD137+ responding cells following CMV pp65₄₉₅ peptide incubation versus sorted non-responding CD137− cells. In FIG. 8B, the plot shows clonotype frequencies of the 9 clonotypes (enclosed by dashed elipse 802) identified in the CD137 assay analyses in the clonotype profiles of sorted CMV pp65₄₉₅ pentamer+ cells versus pentamer− cells. 8/9 of these clonotypes are overlapping with those identified in FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9A-FIG. 9D shows data for identification of low-frequency CMV pp65495-specific T cell clonotypes following peptide incubation and proliferation. In FIG. 9A, clonotype frequencies from sorted proliferating CD8+ T cells following CMV pp65₄₉₅ peptide incubation at day 6 versus fresh unsorted PBMCs. The 16 data points (enclosed by dashed elipse 900) indicate clonotypes greater than 10-fold enriched and exceeding 1/10,000 minimum frequency threshold in the sorted proliferating cells. FIG. 9B shows data of clonotype frequencies from sorted proliferating CD8+ T cells following incubation without peptide at day 6 versus fresh unsorted PBMCs. Clonotypes (represented by data points enclosed by dashed elipses (902) are those identified in FIG. 9A. FIG. 9C shows data of clonotype frequencies from CMV pp65495 pentamer+ versus pentamer− CD8+ T cells. Dashed elipses (904) and arrow (906) indicate the 16 clonotypes identified in the proliferation assay whose results are represented in FIG. 9A with those clonotypes identified in the CMV pp65₄₉₅ pentamer+ versus pentamer− CD8+ T cell comparison. FIG. 9D shows data of clonotype frequencies from CMV pp65₄₉₅ pentamer+ versus pentamer− CDK+ cells. Data points enclosed by dashed elipses (908) and designated by arrows (910) indicate the 25 clonotypes identified in a variant of the proliferation assay described above with those clonotypes identified in the CMV pp65₄₉₅ pentamer+ versus pentamer− CD8-4 T cell comparison. In this assay a pool of 138 overlapping peptides from pp65 was used instead of the single pp65₄₉₅ peptide.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The practice of the present invention may employ, unless otherwise indicated, conventional techniques and descriptions of molecular biology (including recombinant techniques), bioinformatics, cell biology, and biochemistry, which are within the skill of the art. Such conventional techniques include, but are not limited to, sampling and analysis of blood cells, nucleic acid sequencing and analysis, and the like. Specific illustrations of suitable techniques can be had by reference to the example herein below. However, other equivalent conventional procedures can, of course, also be used. Such conventional techniques and descriptions can be found in standard laboratory manuals.

Identifying Paired T-Cell Receptor Chains Without Antigen-Specific Selection

In one aspect, the invention provides methods for matching pairs of immune receptor chains from populations of their encoding nucleic acids that have been sequenced. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, nucleic acid populations encoding repertoires of heavy chain variable regions and light chain variable regions are sequenced so that two separate lists of sequences are formed without any correspondence between members of each list. This may be achieved by carrying out separate sequencing operations, or runs, for each chain, or it may be accomplished by carrying out a single sequence run with the nucleic acids tagged according to the identity of the type of chain it encodes. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, nucleic acid populations encoding repertoires of T cell receptor alpha (TCRα) chains and T cell receptor beta (TCRβ) chains are sequenced, so that two separate lists of sequences are formed without any correspondence between members of each list. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, nucleic acid populations encoding repertoires of T cell receptor gamma (TCRγ) chains and T cell receptor delta (TCRδ) chains are sequenced, so that two separate lists of sequences are formed without any correspondence between members of each list. As above, this may be achieved by carrying out separate sequencing runs for each chain, or it may be accomplished by carrying out a single sequence run with the nucleic acids tagged according to the identity of the type of chain it encodes (that is, either TCRα and TCRβ, or TCRγ and TCRδ, respectively). In the latter embodiments, two approaches may be followed for matching or pairing TCRα and TCRβ (or TCRγ and TCRδ) chains into chains that are functional, for example, because they originate from the same T cell. In a first approach, the frequencies of each encoding nucleic acid are determined and TCRα chains and TCRβ chains whose encoding nucleotide sequences have the same frequencies are paired to form a functional, or reconstituted, TCR. TCRγ and TCRδ chains may be matched by the same process. In a second approach, which is applicable to matching all three types of immune receptor pairs, a lymphocyte population is repeatedly divided into a plurality of subsets. Such subsets may be obtained by aliquoting a tissue sample into separate reaction vessels or chambers. Separately from each of a portion, or subpopulation, of the subsets, nucleic acids encoding the two different immune receptor chains are extracted and sequenced, so that two separate lists of sequences are formed without any correspondence between members of each list. As described above, this may be achieved by carrying out separate sequencing runs for each chain, or it may be accomplished by carrying out a single sequence run with the nucleic acids tagged according to the identity of the type of chain it encodes. To illustrate by an example, if a sample containing T cells or B cells is aliquotted into 100 sub-samples, so that on average each aliquot contains a subset consisting of about 1/100 of the total number of T cells or B cells in the original sample, then 20 such subsets may be randomly selected as a portion of the total number of subsets. (Such portion could be any number greater than one and less than 100, although as described more fully below, a number in the range of from 10 to 20 is a good trade off between amount of sequencing required and likelihood of identifying receptor pairs present at a frequency of interest). In one embodiment, a plurality of subsets is in the range of from 20 to 2000 and a portion of subsets thereof is in the range of from 10 to 50. In another embodiment, a portion of subsets is in the range of from 10 to 20. Examples of the above embodiments are illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B.

As illustrated in FIG. 1A, nucleic acid (which may be DNA or RNA) is extracted from a sample containing T cells (100), after which in separate reaction volumes, primers (102) specific for a nucleic acids encoding TCRα's (or a portion thereof) and primers (104) specific for nucleic acids encoding TCRβ's (or a portion thereof) are combined under conditions that allow the respective nucleic acid populations to be amplified, e.g. by a two-stage polymerase chain reaction (PCR), such as disclosed by Faham and Willis (cited above). Guidance and disclosures for selecting such primers and carrying out such reactions are described extensively in the molecular immunology literature and below (for TCRβ and IgH) and in references such as, Yao et al, Cellular and Molecular Immunology, 4: 215-220 (2007)(for TCRα), the latter reference being incorporated herein by reference. In one embodiment, amplicons (106) and (108) produced by a two-stage PCR are ready for sequence analysis using a commercially available next generation sequencer, such as MiSeq Personal Sequencer (Illumnina, San Diego, Calif.). After nucleotide sequences have been determined (107) and (109), databases or tables (110 and 112, respectively) are obtained. Like sequences may be counted and frequency versus sequence plots (114 and 116) are constructed. Reconstituted TCRs may be determined by matching (118) TCRα's and TCRβ's with identical frequencies or with frequencies having the same rank ordering. Clearly, this embodiment of the method works most efficiently when frequencies of different TCRα's and TCRβ's are not too close together, i.e. are distinct, even taking into account experimental error.

Once a pair of clonotype sequences having equal (or equally ranked) frequencies are identified full length sequences encoding each chain may be reconstructed from the known constant and variable regions using conventional techniques for genetic manipulation and expression, e.g. Walchli et al, PLosOne, 6(11): e27930 (2011); or the like.

Greater accuracy in the determination of receptor chain frequencies may be obtained in a variation of the above embodiment, which may be seen in reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B where RNA encoding TCRβ is amplified in a two-staged PCR. As described more fully below, primer (202) and primer set (212) are used in a first stage amplification to attach common primer binding site (214) to all the nucleic acids encoding TCRβs. FIG. 2B illustrates the components of a second stage amplification for generating more material and for attaching primer binding sites P5 (222) and P7 (220) which are used in cluster formation (via bridge PCR) in the Solexa-based sequencing protocol. Primer P7 (220) may also include sample tag (221) for multiplexing up to 96 samples for concurrent sequencing in the same run, e.g. Illumina application note 770-2008-011 (2008). A different type of tag in the same primer may be used to increase the accuracy of the determination of receptor chain frequencies. In this embodiment, primer P7 is modified to include a highly diverse tag set, so that instead of 96 tags, primer P7 is engineered to have 10,000 distinct tags, or more. In other words, primer P7 is a mixture of 10,000 or more distinct oligonucleotides each having an identical template binding region, a distinct tag sequence, and an identical 5′ tail portion (e.g., (223) in FIG. 2B). With this arrangement, any subset of nucleic acids encoding the same receptor chain (e.g. less than 100) will receive a different tag with high probability. Such a process of pairing members of a small set of nucleic acids with a much larger set of tags for counting, labeling, sorting purposes is well known and is disclosed in various forms in the following references that are incorporated by reference, Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,214; Brenner et al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,897; and Macevicz, Internation patent publication WO US2005/111242; Brenner et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 97: 1665-1670 (2000); Casbon et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 39(12): e81 (2011); Fu et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 108: 9026-9031 (2011). Construction of sets of minimally cross-hybridizing oligonucleotide tag, or tags with other useful properties, is disclosed in the following exemplary references, which are incorporated by reference: Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,214; Morris et al, U.S. patent publication 2004/0146901; Mao et al, U.S. patent publication 2005/0260570; and the like. Preferably, the tag set should be at least 100 times (or more) the size of the set of nucleic acids to be labeled if all nucleic acids are to receive a unique tag with high probability. For immune receptor chains, in one embodiment, the number of distinct tags is in the range of from 10,000 to 100,000; in another embodiment, the number of distinct tags is in the range of from 10,000 to 50,000; and in another embodiment, the number of distinct tags is in the range of from 10,000 to 20,000. As disclosed in Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,214, such large mixtures of oligonucleotide tags may be synthesized by combinatorial methods; alternatively, primers containing unique tags may be synthesized individually by non-combinatorial methods, such as disclosed by Cleary et al, Nature Methods, 1: 241-248 (2004); York et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 40(1): e4 (2012); LeProust et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 38(8): 2522-2540 (2010); and the like.

In one aspect, the above embodiment may be carried out by the following steps: (a) obtaining a sample containing T cells; (b) determining nucleotide sequences of TCRα chains of T cells from the sample, each TCRα chain having a frequency of occurrence in the sample; (c) determining nucleotide sequences of TCRβ chains of T cells from the sample, each TCRβ chain having a frequency of occurrence in the sample; and (d) identifying paired TCRα chains and TCRβ chains as those having the same frequency within the sample. Frequencies of the respective TCRα chains and TCRβ chains may be determined from the tabulations of encoding nucleic acids, or clonotypes. Alternatively, frequencies of the respective TCRα chains and TCRβ chains may be determined from the tabulations of polypeptides encoded by the clonotypes. As mentioned above, clonotype frequencies may be determined by counting clonotypes directly or indirectly by using a tagging scheme as described above.

FIG. 1B illustrates another embodiment for identifying matching receptor subunits which may be applied to either TCRs or BCRs and which may be used even when receptor frequencies among subunit chains are close or indistinguishable, whether because of experimental error or otherwise. Starting with a sample containing lymphocytes (149), which may be either T cells or B cells, subsets are formed by separating or partitioning the sample into a plurality of subsets (152), 1 through K (in the figure). In some embodiments, only a portion of the K subset are analyzed; thus, it is not necessary to actually form all K subsets. One may form subsets of only the portion that are actually analyzed. For example, if the sample has a volume of 100 μL and K=100, but only a portion consisting of 20 subset is to be analyzed, then only twenty 1 μL subsets need be formed. From each subset (152) nucleic acids encoding each different immune receptor chain (TCRα and TCRβ being shown under subset 1) are sequenced, thereby forming pairs of lists, for example, (162), (164), (166) and (168) for subsets 1, 2. . . K-1, K, respectively. Each pair of such lists contains a first list of nucleotide sequences of a first immune receptor chain, e.g. list (154) for TCRα of subset 1, and a second list of nucleotide sequences of a second immune receptor chain, e.g. list (156) for TCRβ of subset 1. In one embodiment, the number of subsets, K, is a number in the range of from 5 to 500; in another embodiment, K is a number in the range of from 10 to 100; in another embodiment, K is a number in the range of from 20 to 50. In some embodiments, a portion of subsets analyzed is 10 or fewer subsets; in other embodiments, a portion of subsets analyzed is 20 or fewer subsets; in other embodiments, a portion of subsets analyzed is at least five percent of the subsets; in other embodiments, a portion of subsets analyzed is at least ten percent of the subsets; in other embodiments, a portion of subsets analyzed is at least twenty percent of the subsets.

Each kind of lymphocyte in sample, e.g. lymphocyte (150), is present in the sample at a particular frequency. The distribution of lymphocytes into the subsets is readily approximated by a bionomial model; thus, for an arbitrary lymphocyte (for example (150)) having a particular clonotype, (a) its frequency in the sample, (b) the total number of lymphocytes in the sample, and (c) the number of subsets may be related to the expectation of finding at least one of the particular lymphocyte in a predetermined fraction of subsets. This relationship may be expressed as follows: r=(1-f)^((N/K)), where r is the fraction of subsets containing at least one of the particular lymphocyte, f is the frequency of the particular lymphocyte in the sample, N is the total number of lymphocytes in the sample, and K is the number of subsets. Thus, if one sets r=½ and takes N as a constant, then one may select successive values of K so that lymphocytes of different frequencies are present in about half of the subsets. Other values of r could be selected, but r=½ provides results with the highest statistical power, thus the value r˜½ is preferred. Once such lists are obtained they are examined to identify pairs of first and second nucleotide sequences that either occur in a subset together or are both absent from a subset. By way of example, the members of pair (158) appear in lists (164) of subset 2 and in lists (166) of subset K-1, but neither member of the pair appears in lists (162) or (168) of subsets 1 and K, either alone or together. This of course reflects the presence or absence of the particular lymphocyte that is in subsets 2 and K-1, but is absent from subsets 1 and K, such as lymphocyte (150). Such a pattern confirms that the members of pair (158) go together and correspond to the chains of a functional immune receptor. Other lymphocytes in sample (149) may be present in approximately the same frequency, such as lymphocyte (153). However, the probability that at least one of lymphocyte (153) will occur in exactly the same subsets as lymphocyte (150) is extremely low, especially if r is approximately one half and the portion of the K subsets analyzed is in the range of from 10 to 20, or more.

In one aspect of the invention, matched first and second chains of lymphocytes from a succession of frequency classes may be determined by carrying out the above process repeatedly for different values of K. For example, a 1 mL sample of peripheral blood of a normal individual contains about 1-4.8×10⁶ lymphocytes of which about 10-15 percent are B cells, about 70-85 percent are T cells and about 10 percent are NK cells; thus, the 1 mL sample may contain from about 7×10⁵ to about 4×10⁶ T cells. If the number of T lymphocytes in a 1 mL sample is N=10⁶, then matching TCR chains of T cells of the following frequencies are matched by identifying those that appear together in fifty percent of the subsets and not at all in the other fifty percent of subsets:

Frequency Number of Subsets Volume (μL) .001 1443 0.7 .0005 722 1.4 .0001 144 6.9 .00005 72 13.9 As mentioned above, not all the subsets at a particular frequency need be analyzed. If there are a large number of lymphocytes that have frequencies at or close to a selected frequency, e.g. f=0.001, they may all be resolved by taking a larger and larger portion of the total number of subsets until every pair that appears together in fifty percent of the subsets can be distinguished from every other pair at the same frequency. This is because the probability of two different lymphocytes occurring in exactly the same subsets of the fifty percent becomes infinitesimal as the portion of subsets is increased.

Identifying Paired and Unpaired T-Cell Receptor Chains with Antigen-Specific Selection

In some embodiments, the invention is directed to identifying antigen-specific T cells by one or a pair of immune receptor chains, such as TCRα, or TCRβ, or TCRα and TCRβ together; or TCRδ, or TCRγ, or TCRδ and TCRγ together. In some embodiments, the nucleotide sequence encoding a single immune receptor chain, such as TCRβ, is used to identify antigen-specific T cells. Sometimes such nucleotide sequences are referred to herein as a “clonotype,” although clonotypes also may be ordered pairs of nucleotide sequences specific to a particular T cell, such as the nucleotide sequences encoding the T cell's TCRα and TCRβ chains, which may be represented (for example) as (S_(α), S_(β)), or like notation, where S_(α) is a sequence of a segment of TCRα and S_(β) is a sequence of a segment of TCRβ, and as a pair they are a clonotype of the cell they originate from.

Features of some embodiments of the invention are illustrated in FIG. 1C. To a tissue sample (170) comprising T cells (173) is added antigen (171) under interaction conditions so that T cells specific for antigen (171) may interact with antigen (171). Such interaction may be direct or indirect. Direct interactions include binding of antigen (171) to antigen-specific T cells, binding of antigen peptide-multimer conjugates to antigen-specific T cells, and the like. Peptide-multimer conjugates, such as tetramers, are well-known reagents to those of ordinary skill, e.g. Bousso, Microbes Infect. 2(4): 425-429 (2000); Klenerman et al, Nature Reviews Immunol., 2(4): 263-272 (2002); and the like. Indirect interactions include presentation of antigen or antigen peptides to antigen-specific T cells by antigen presenting cells, such as, dendritic cells, artificial APCs, and the like. In some interactions, antigen-specific T cells may become activated T cells that may proliferate and/or develop or express activation markers both of which provide means for selecting and/or enriching antigen-specific T cells using conventional techniques. Antigen (171) may comprise a wide varity of compounds or compositions as discussed more fully below. Proteins and peptides derived from one or more proteins are of special interest, particularly when the proteins are associated with cancers or infectious diseases, such as bacterial or virus infections. Antigen (171) may be combined with, exposed to, or added to, tissue sample (170) in a variety of ways known in the art, e.g. Berzofsky et al, J. Clin. Investigation, 113: 1515-1525 (2004). After combining antigen (171) with tissue sample (170) in a reaction mixture, antigen-specific T cells (173) and non-antigen-specific T cells alike are exposed to antigen (171) with which they interact either directly or indirectly.

In some embodiments, antigen-specific T cells (173) are activated, possibly after a period of incubation with antigen (171). A period of incubation may vary widely. In some embodiments, incubation may be for an interval of from a few minutes (for example, 10 minutes) to an hour or more; in other embodiments, incubation may be for an interval of a few hours (for example, 2 hours) to 8 or more hours. In other embodiments, antigen-specific T cells (173) interact with antigen by binding to or forming complexes with antigen or antigen reagents, such as antigen peptide-multimer conjugates, such that activation may not take place. A step of exposing may include the step of incubating a tissue sample with an antigen. For example, in the case of a protein antigen and a tissue sample that comprises PBMCs, a step of exposing may include combining the tissue sample with peptides derived from the protein antigen such that dendritic cells in the tissue sample present the peptides to antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample which, in turn, interact with the antigen-presenting dendritic cells and are activated. After exposing T cells (173) to antigen so that antigen-specific T cells interact with antigen, antigen-specific T cells may be selected (172) and/or enriched based on some feature resulting from the interaction, such as antigen peptide-multimer binding, activation markers induced, proliferation of the T cells, or the like. As mentioned above, the step of selecting (172) antigen-specific T cells may be alternatively a step of enriching antigen-specific T cells from the reaction mixture, and/or a step of separating antigen-specific T cells from the reaction mixture, and/or a step of isolating antigen-specific T cells from the reaction mixture. After antigen-specific T cells are enriched, separated, and/or isolated (172) their clonotypes are determined by sequencing a predetermined segment of a recombined nucleic acid that encodes a portion of an immune receptor, such as TCRβ and/or TCRα.

A predetermined segment chosen may vary widely; in some embodiments, it encompasses all or a portion of a V(D)J region, so that clonotypes based thereon have maximal diversity for unique identification oft cell clones. Determination of clonotypes is described more fully below, but briefly, recombined nucleic acids encoding one or more selected immune receptors (such as TCRβ as shown in FIG. 1C) are sequenced (for example, by spatially isolating molecules thereof, amplifying such molecules, and carrying out sequencing steps by a high-throughput sequencing chemistry, such as available with commercial next-generation DNA sequencers). As a result of these sequencing steps, sequence reads (176) are produced which are used to determine clonotypes and clonotype frequencies of antigen-specific T cells. Clonotypes and clonotype frequencies are also determined either for T cells of the tissue sample (174) from sequence reads (178) or for non-antigen-specific T cells (175) from sequence reads (177). Non-antigen-specific T cells may be obtained from a two-way sorting procedure (for example, using FACS or MACS) based on T cells labeled according to an interaction, such as, an interaction of antigen-specific T cells with fluorescently labeled antigen peptide multimers.These data may then be analyzed to identify clonotypes associated with antigen-specific T cells, for example, as described in the Example below and FIGS. 6-9. Briefly, in some embodiments, antigen-specific T cells may be associated with clonotype frequencies that increase in the selected population of T cells relative to frequencies of the same clonotype in populations of non-antigen specific T cells or in the population of T cells in tissue sample (170).

Exemplary steps for implementing this embodiment of the invention (i.e., for determining clonotypes associated with antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample) may include the following: (a) exposing the T cells of the sample to an antigen so that T cells specific for the antigen interact with the antigen; (b) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the tissue sample to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (c) isolating anigen-specific T cells from the tissue sample based on their interaction with the antigen; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of the isolated antigen-specific T cells to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (e) determining antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample as T cells whose clonotype frequencies increase in the sample of isolated T cells relative to the frequencies of the same clonotypes in a sample of T cells in the tissue sample. In some embodiments, a step of exposing may be carried out by reacting under interaction conditions an antigen with a tissue sample; in still other embodiments, a step of exposing may be carried out by reaction under activation conditions an antigen with a tissue sample. As mentioned above the step of exposing for this and other embodiments may vary widely, and its implementation may depend on the nature of the tissue sample and the nature of the antigen, as well as other factors. For example, if a tissue sample includes antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, then exposing may include either addition of an antigen, such as a protein, directly to the tissue sample, or it may include producing antigenic material from an antigen of interest followed by addition of the antigenic material. More efficient T cell activation to a protein antigen, for example, may be accomplished by exposing a tissue sample to a set of overlapping peptides derived from the protein antigen of interest, using conventional techniques. Alternatively, antificial antigen-presenting compositions may be used in the exposing step or its equivalent, e.g. Oelke et al, Nature Medicine, 9(5): 619-624 (2003). The step of exposing T cells in a tissue sample may include exposing such T cells to whole cells containing antigen, to gene-modified cells expressing antigen, to whole protein, to peptides derived from a protein antigen, to viral vectors expressing an antigen, to antigen-modified, or loaded, dendritic cells. In some embodiments, a tissue sample is a blood sample; in other embodiments, a tissue sample is a sample of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from peripheral blood using conventional techniques. In some embodiments the step of exposing may be carried out by reacting under activation conditions a tissue sample comprising T cells with an antigen, where various activation conditions are described above. In view of the wide variety of tissue samples and antigens, the step of exposing may be alternatively carried out by a step of reacting under activation conditions a tissue sample comprising T cells with an antigen.

Further exemplary steps for implementing the above method may comprise: (a) reacting under activation conditions a tissue sample comprising T cells to an antigen; (b) sorting from the tissue sample activated T cells and unactivated T cells; (b) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the activated T cells to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (c) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the unactivated T cells to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (d) determining antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample as T cells whose clonotype frequencies increase in the sample of activated T cells relative to the frequencies of the same clonotypes in the tissue sample or in a sample of unactivated T cells. Likewise, exemplary steps for implementing the above method may comprise: (a) reacting under interaction conditions a tissue sample comprising T cells with an antigen; (b) sorting T cells of the tissue sample into a first subset of T cells that form complexes with the antigen or antigen reagents thereof and into a second subset of T cells that do not form complexes with the antigen or antigen reagents thereof; (b) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of the first subset to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (c) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the tissue sample or the second subset to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (d) determining antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample as T cells whose clonotype frequencies increase in the sample of T cells of the first subset relative to the frequencies of the same clonotypes in the tissue sample or in a sample of T cells from the second subset. As used herein, the term “antigen reagents” means reagents derived from an antigen designed to bind to, or form complexes with, T cells whose TCRs are specific for the antigen. Exemplary antigen reagents include, but are not limited to, multimers conjugated with peptides derived from an antigen.

In some embodiments, the above method of determining antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample may be carried out by steps comprising: (a) reacting under activation conditions in a reaction mixture a tissue sample comprising T cells to an antigen or antigen reagents thereof; (b) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the reaction mixture prior to addition of the antigen to the reaction mixture to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (c) incubating the reaction mixture after addition of the antigen or antigen reagent thereof for a predetermined interval; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the incubated reaction mixture to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (d) determining antigen-specific T cells in the tissue sample as T cells whose clonotype frequencies increase in the incubated reaction mixture relative to the frequencies of the same clonotypes in the reaction mixture prior to the addition of antigen. In some embodiments, a predetermined interval for incubation is usually greater than eight hours; in other embodiments, a predetermined interval may be greater than 24 hours; in further embodiments, a predetermined interval may be within a range of from 8 hours to 72 hours.

In some embodiments, step of isolating antigen-specific T cells may be substituted with either a step of separating a sample of antigen-specific T cells from the tissue sample after exposure to an antigen of interest or a step of recovering antigen-specific T cells from the tissue sample after exposure to an antigen of interest. In some embodiments, such step of isolating may be carried out by sorting antigen-interacting and/or activated T cells from a tissue sample; likewise, in some embodiments, non-antigen-specific T cells and/or unactivated T cells may be sorted from a tissue sample. Such steps of the various embodiments may be carried out by a variety of methods including, but not limited to, (i) peptide-MHC multimer staining reagents (such as, tetramers, pentamers, or the like), followed by sorting, panning, or otherwise capturing complexes between such reagents and antigen-specific T cells, (ii) sorting or panning or capturing based on activation markers, such as CD137, CD154, or others (described more fully below), or (iii) proliferation (and therefore, for example, an increase in frequency) of antigen-specific T cells over antigen-non-specific T cells. Thus, in some embodiments, said step of isolating may comprise a step isolating activated T cells; or a step of separating activated T cells from the tissue sample. In some of such embodiments, T cell activation markers, as noted above, may be used to sort, pan or otherwise capture activated T cells, using conventional techniques. Generally, a step is taken for obtaining a sample of T cells from a pool of T cells derived from the tissue sample, which pool is enriched in antigen-specific T cells and/or activated T cells. In some embodiments, T cells with an activation marker may be sorted or isolated using a binding compound, such as an antibody, which specifically binds to the activation marker and which can be directly or indirectly labeled in accordance with conventional methods, e.g. FACS, magnetic bead-based separation, or like techniques.

In another application of the above embodiment, T cell immunogenicity may be measured in the following steps: (a) reacting under activation conditions a tissue sample comprising T cells with an antigen or an antigen reagent thereof; (b) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of T cells from the tissue sample exposed to antigen or antigen reagents thereof to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (c) isolating activated T cells from the tissue sample; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from a sample of the activated T cells isolated from the tissue sample to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (e) quantifying immunogenicity of the antigen as a function of increases in frequencies of clonotypes in the sample of isolated T cells exposed to antigen with respect to frequencies of the same clonotypes in the tissue sample prior to said step of isolating. Exemplary functions of increases in frequencies of clonotypes include an average of increases among the isolated antigen-specific T cells; another exemplary function of increases includes an average distance of data points of clonotypes registering increases in frequency from the diagonal in plots such as those of FIG. 6, 7 or 8. Still another measure of T cell immunogenicity includes any of several similarity measures of a clonotype profile of T cells of the exposed tissue sample prior to isolating and a clonotype profile of T cells of a sample of T cells isolated (or separated) from the tissue sample, such as described in Faham et al, International Patent Publication No. WO 2013/036459, which is incorporated herein by reference. In this embodiment, antigens of particular interest are therapeutic proteins, such as therapeutic antibodies.

In one aspect, a similarity measure for use with these embodiments of the invention is a monotonically varying function that maps (or is capable of mapping by a simple transformation) at least two sets of clonotype frequency measurements (e.g. two sequence-based clonotype profiles) to the unit interval [0,1]. Simple transformations include, but are not limited to, any linear transformation of dependent variables, logarithmic transformations, such as y_(ij)=ln(n_(ij)+1) (where n_(ij) is the number of clonotype i in sample j), or the like. A value of zero means no similarity between clonotype profiles and a value of one means two clonotype profiles are statistically identical. Exemplary similarity measures that may be implemented in these embodiments are described in Legendre and Legendre, Numerical Ecology (Elsevier, 1998); Magurran, Measurement of Biological Diversity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003); Wolda, Occologia (Berl), 50: 296-302 (1981); and like references, which are incorporated by reference. Such similarity measures include, but are not limited to, Czekanowski's index, Dice's coefficient, Horn's information theory index, Canberra metric, Morisita's index, Kaczynski's similarity index, Sorensen's index, Jacquard's index, Bray-Curtis index, and the like. In one aspect, similarity measures are similarity metrics; or in other words, the similarity measures employed have properties of a distance measure, such as, (i) the value of the measure is always non-negative, (ii) the measure is zero if and only if the clonotype profile measurements are identical, (iii) the value of the measure is invariant with respect to the ordering of the clonotype profile measurements (sometimes expressed as d(x,y)=d(y,x)), (iv) the triangle inequality holds with respect to three different clonotype profile measurements. In another aspect, similarity measures may be correlation coefficients (subject to a simple transformation, e.g. taking its absolute value, squaring its value, or the like, so that its value is restricted to the unit interval). Exemplary correlation coefficients include, but are not limited to, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and rank correlations, such as Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Kendall's tau rank correlation coefficient, and the like. In one embodiment a Morisita-Horn index (C₁₃) (including Morisita-Horn index with a logarithmic transformation), as disclosed in Wolda (cited above), is employed with the embodiments.

Another embodiment for identifying pairs of immune receptor chains of antigen-specific T cells is illustrated in FIG. 1D, where T cell containing reaction mixtures are exposed to a single antigen. Similarly to the embodiment of FIG. 1B, a tissue sample is partitioned into subsets (152) from 1 to K and a portion of the subsets may be selected for analysis. Ranges in the values of K and the portion selected may be the same as for the embodiment of FIG. 1B. In one embodiment, as above, the partitions may be aliquots of the tissue sample, in which approximately equal amounts of tissue sample are provided to each subset, for example, by distributing equal amounts of tissue sample to each of K reaction mixtures, which may be contained by vessels or reactors, such as wells in a multi-well plate. Tissue samples may also be distributed to a plurality of K separate chambers of a microfluidics device in connection with this and/or the embodiments described above. T cells of each subset are exposed to antigen (179) after which reaction mixtures in the K vessels are incubated for a time (for example, a predetermined interval) sufficient for T cells to respond to, or interact with, the antigen, either directly or in a processed form (for example, as an antigen reagent). Such response may include forming a stable complex with antigen or a processed form thereof, or may include the development and/or expression of activation markers by T cells, or may include proliferation by T cells specific for the antigen. Antigen-interacting or antigen-responding T cells are then selected (180) and isolated (for example, sorted) from each of the K chambers, after which recombined nucleic acids encoding predetermined portions of one or both TCR chains are sequenced to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes and clonotype profiles (for example, 154 and 156) are formed. As above with the embodiment of FIG. 1B, once such profiles are obtained they are examined to identify pairs of first and second nucleotide sequences that either occur in a subset together or are both absent from a subset. By way of example, the members of pair (181) appear in lists (184) of subset 2 and in lists (186) of subset K-1, but neither member of the pair appears in lists (182) or (188) of subsets 1 and K, either alone or together. As above, this reflects the presence or absence of a particular lymphocyte, which in this illustration is in subsets 2 and K-1, but is absent from subsets 1 and K. Such a pattern confirms that the members of pair (181) go together and correspond to the chains of a functional immune receptor that is specific for antigen, Ag₁ (179).

In some embodiments, the above method of determining receptors of antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample may comprise the following steps: (a) partitioning a tissue sample containing T cells into a plurality of subsets; (b) exposing the T cells of each of a portion of subsets to an antigen so that T cells specific for the antigen are activated; (c) isolating the activated T cells of each subset of the portion; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor a chains in each subset of the portion to provide sequence reads from which a chain clonotypes are determined; (e) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor β chains in each subset of the portion to provide sequence reads from which β chain clonotypes are determined; and (f) identifying as antigen-specific T cell receptors with those pairs of α chain clonotypes and β chain clonotypes that for every subset of the portion (i) either both the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in a subset or neither are present in a subset, and (ii) both the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in at least one subset of the portion and the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are not present in at least one subset of the portion.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the above method of determining receptors of antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample may comprise the following steps: (a) forming a plurality of subsets from a tissue sample containing T cells; (b) reacting under activation conditions the T cells of each subset to an antigen; (c) isolating the antigen-specific T cells of each subset; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor a chains in each subset to provide sequence reads from which a chain clonotypes are determined; (e) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor β chains in each subset to provide sequence reads from which β chain clonotypes are determined; (d) identifying as antigen-specific T cell receptors with those pairs of a chain clonotypes and β chain clonotypes that for every subset (i) either both the α chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in a subset or neither are present in a subset, and (ii) both the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are present in at least one subset and the a chain clonotype and β chain clonotype are not present in at least one subset. In some of these latter embodiments, the plurality of subsets formed may correspond to a portion of the plurality into which a tissue sample is partitioned in the former embodiments. In some embodiments, the step of forming a plurality of subsets may comprise aliquoting portions of a tissue sample into separate reaction vessels. In some embodiments, such portions are equal portions.

Another embodiment for identifying clonotypes of antigen-specific T cells is illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5B, where a plurality of antigens (500) is exposed to T cells in a plurality of different reaction mixtures. In one aspect, this embodiment permits the identification of antigen-specific T cells from scarce tissue samples, such as from a cancer patient whose tissue sample will be used to identify clonotypes for immune monitoring (e.g. minimal residual disease (MRD) analysis), to produce a patient-specific immunotherapeutic reagent using cancer antigen-specific T cells, or the like. Subsets (or reaction mixtures) (502) from 1 to K (shown in FIGS. 5A-5B as 1-8) are formed from a tissue sample. The number of different antigens employed may vary widely and in some embodiments the number depends on the nature of the antigens. For protein antigens, in some embodiments, a plurality of protein antigens may be employed; in further embodiments, a plurality of protein antigens may be in the range of from 2 to 100 protein antigens; in other embodiments, a plurality may be in the range of from 2 to 50 protein antigens; in other embodiments, a plurality may be in the range of from 2 to 10 protein antigens; in still other embodiments, a plurality may be in the range of from 2 to 1000 protein antigens. Each antigen of plurality (500) is exposed to (or presented to) T cells of a subplurality of reaction mixtures (502) less than the total plurality of K reaction mixtures (in this illustration, subpluralities are each 4). Selections of the subsets of reaction mixtures into which antigens are placed are predetermined for each antigen. In some embodiments, each antigen is applied or exposed to a unique subplurality of subsets. That is, the selection of subsets making up a subplurality corresponding to a particular antigen is unique to that antigen. The size of the subpluralites may be the same or different for each antigen; but in some embodiments, the size of the subpluralities (i.e. the number of subsets in each) are the same for each antigen (which is equal to 4 in FIGS. 5A-5B). In some embodiments, subpluralities of subsets correspond to a different combination of subsets out of the plurality (in this case 8), as mentioned above. Thus, for some embodiments, the number of possible subsets is the same as the number of different combinations of R subsets selected from the total number of subsets, K. (For example, for R=4 and K=8, the number of different combinations is K!/(R!(K-R)!).

A selection of different combinations (or subpluralities) for antigens (500) is indicated by matrix (506) of +′s and −′s which indicate which antigen is exposed to T cells of which subsets. As mentioned above, the selection of subsets into which an antigen is applied (or exposed) is predetermined; thus, for example, antigen Ag₁ is applied to subplurality of subsets 1, 4, 5 and 7. A subplurality of subsets which are exposed to antigen may vary between 2 and K-1; however, in some embodiments, the size of the subplurality is an integer equal to or closest to K/2. As above, after exposure to antigen and optional incubation, antigen-specific T cells are selected (504) (e.g. based on interaction with with an antigen in the reaction mixture) and clonotype profiles are generated for recombined nucleic acids encoding a selected TCR chain or a portion thereof (as illustrated for subset 1), which permits its corresponding T cell to be identified and/or isolated. Prior to exposure, a sample of T cells may be taken from the tissue sample subsets (for example, 510). Recombined nucleic acids encoding clonotypes of the same TCR segment are sequenced both in sample (510) and in sample (511) to produce sequence reads (514) and (515) from which clonotypes and clonotype frequencies are determined. Frequencies of clonotypes that increase in the selected pools of T cells (illustrated as lists (520) in FIG. 5B) correspond to T cells specific for antigens (for example, Ag1 or Ag4 in reaction mixture 1) An antigen-specific clonotype may be identified by observing a clonotype that increases in frequency in every reaction mixture of a given antigen. For example, in FIGS. 5A-5B, the same clonotype (518a, 518b, 518c and 518d) is observed to have increased in frequency within reaction mixtures 1, 4, 5 and 7 which corresponds to the unique subplurality of subsets into which antigen 1 was added, but not to have increased in the other reaction mixtures where antigen 1 was absent; therefore, clonotype (518) identifies a T cell with a TCR specific for antigen 1. Likewise, the same clonotype (522a, 522b, 522c and 522d) is observed to have increased in frequency within reaction mixtures 1, 2, 3 and 8, which corresponds to the unique subplurality of subsets into which antigen 4 was added, but not to have increased in frequency in the other reaction mixtures where antigen 4 was absent; therefore, clonotype (522) identifies a T cell with a TCR specific for antigen 4. Since each antigen is exposed to T cells in a unique subplurality of reaction mixtures (or subsets), whenever the same clonotype is observed in each reaction mixture of the unique subplurality, then the clonotype corresponds to a TCR specific for the antigen corresponding to the subplurality.

In one aspect, the above embodiments of the invention for determining clonotypes of antigen-specific T cells in a tissue sample may be carried out with the following steps: (a) forming a plurality of subsets from a tissue sample containing T cells; (b) exposing under interaction conditions T cells in a subplurality of subsets to one or more antigens so that T cells specific for any of the one or more antigens are capable of interacting therewith, and wherein each different antigen is exposed to T cells in a different subplurality; (c) enriching the antigen-interacting T cells of each subset of a subplurality; (d) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding a T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from said enriched T cells in each subset of the subplurality to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; (e) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding T-cell receptor chain or a portion thereof from said T cells in each subset of the subplurality prior to said step of enriching or from non-enriched T cells in each subset of the subplurality to provide sequence reads from which clonotypes are determined; and (f) identifying a clonotype of a T cell specific for an antigen of the one or more antigens as a clonotype whose frequency increases in each subset of a subplurality corresponding to the antigen and does not increase in subsets outside of such subplurality. That is, in some embodiments, such clonotypes are identified by observing the clonotypes in all reaction mixtures that increase in frequency (520 in FIG. 5B) and identifying clonotypes that appear in each of the subsets of the subplurality corresponding to a given antigen and that is absent in all of the other subsets. In other words, a clonotype of a T cell specific for an antigen increases in frequency only in the subsets or reaction mixtures to which the antigen was added and not in the others. In some embodiments, a clonotype of an antigen-specific T cell may be identified whenever the frequency such clonotype increases in substantially every subset of a subplurality corresponding to the antigen and does not increase in substantially every other subset (every subset not part of the subplurality).

For clarity, FIG. 4 illustrates the process of selecting subpluralities of a plurality of subset in accordance with some embodiments of the invention. Tissue sample (400) is separated into a plurality of subsets (402), for example, 10 as shown in FIG. 4. Tissue sample (400) may also be aliquoted into a plurality of subsets, or a plurality of subsets may be formed from it, which may or may not use the entire amount of tissue sample (400). A subplurality of plurality (402) is a selection of from two to nine subsets of plurality (402). In some embodiments, several subpluralities are selected that each have the same number of subsets, such as illustrated in FIG. 4, where each subplurality consists of five subsets. In some embodiments of the invention, a different antigen is exposed to T cells in subsets of a different subplurality. Thus, for example, subplurality 1 may be exposed to antigen 1, subplurality 2 exposed to antigen 2, and so forth. Consequently, in FIG. 4, subset 1 is exposed to antigen 1, antigen 3 and antigen 4; likewise, subset 2 is exposed to antigen 1 and antigen 2; and so forth.

Identification of Antigen-Specific T Cell Clonotypes Using Single Cell Techniques

In some embodiments, antigen-specific T cell clonotypes may be identified using single cell techniques, such as disclosed in Faham and Willis, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,236,503 and 8,507,205, which are incorporated herein by reference. In one aspect, the step of selecting T cells that interact with antigen is carried out by disposing T cells exposed to antigen(s) into reactors so that a substantial fraction of reactors contain a single T cell and a single labeled antigen reagent, usually bound to a TCR of the T cell. An objective of these embodiments of the invention is to carry out a polymerase cycling assembly (PCA) reaction (also sometimes referred to as a “linking PCR”) on individual cells in the reactors to link their recombined nucleic acid sequences (e.g., encoding a portion of a TCR) to a sequence tag that is associated with, or labels, an antigen reagent present in the reactor with the single T cell. The products of such linking are referred to herein as “fusion products.” After their generation, fusion products can be sequenced to identify both the clonotype of the TCR and the sequence tag which, in turn, identifies the antigen reagent. FIG. 1E gives an overview on one embodiment of the invention. Lymphoid cells (1010) (shown combined with antigen reagents (1000)) each have a distinct identifying nucleic acid (1012), which in the figure are exemplified (without any intention of being limiting) as messenger RNAs (mRNAs)(1012), which in the three cells illustrated in the figure are labeled “C₁”, “C₂”, and “C₃”, to indicate that they are three different recombined nucleic acids unique to each cell, respectively. These recombined nucleic acids encode TCRs (for example, 1001) expressed on the surface of the respective T cells. As mentioned above, T cells (1010) are shown combined with antigen reagents (1000), which may be conventional multimers, such as tetramers, which are labeled with sequence tags (for example, 1003) that identify the MHC and peptide portions of the antigen reagent (for example, as shown enclosed in dashed box 1004). Antigen reagent (1000) is exemplified with a conventional structure comprising a framework component (1002), such as a streptavidin molecule; MHC linking moieties (such as, biotinylated peptides (for example, 1006)); and MHC-peptide complexes (1004).

Antigen reagent (1000) may also include sequence tag labels (such as, 1003), which may be produced as taught by Kwong et al, U.S. Pat. No. 8,394,590, which is incorporated herein by reference. The MHC and peptide portion determines the specificity of the reagent for a TCR and vice versa. Antigen reagents (1000) are produced so that substantially every different antigen reagent (e.g. every different multimer) has a different sequence tag. In some embodiments, sequence tags and MHC-peptide portions are selected so that with the knowledge of a tag's sequence, the identity of the MHC-peptide portion can be uniquely determined. That is, for example, there is a one-to-one correspondence between a sequence tag and an MHC-peptide complex, so that (for example), a sequence tag “X” indicates the presence of recombined nucleic acid “C₁”, a sequence tag “Y” indicates the presence of recombined nucleic acid “C₂”, and a sequence tag “Z” indicates the presence of recombined nucleic acid “C₃”. Antigen reagents (1000) are combined (1008) with T cells (1010) in a reaction mixture and are incubated under antigen-interaction conditions which permit the formation of T cell-reagent complexes whenever a TCR is specific for an antigen reagent. After such incubation, cells are disposed (1016) in single cell reactors, which may vary widely and may include, but not be limited to, plates with arrays of nanoliter-volume wells, microfluidic devices, and the like, as described more fully below. In some embodiments, single cell reactors are aqueous micelles in an emulsion, such as illustrated (1017) in FIG. 1E, where a substantial fraction of micelles in the emulsion contain a single T cell together with a single antigen reagent. In one aspect, single-cell emulsion (126) is generated using a microfluidic emulsion generator, such as disclosed by Zeng et al, Anal. Chem., 82: 3183-3190 (2010), or the like.

Reactors (1018) contain a PCA reaction mixture that, for example, may comprise a nucleic acid polymerase, outer primers and linking primers (described more fully below), nucleoside triphosphates, a buffer solution, and the like. In some embodiments, a PCA reaction mixture may also include one or more cell lysing reagents, to give the foregoing reagents access to intracellular recombined nucleic acids, such as mRNAs. For each reactor (1018) containing a cell, PCA reaction (1020) generates fusion products (1022) that may comprise one or more pairs of sequences, such that one member of the pair is a sequence tag and the other member is a predetermined recombined nucleic acid. In other embodiments, fusion products may comprise triplets of sequences, or higher order concatenations, for example, as taught by Faham and Willis, U.S. Pat. No. 8,507,205. In some embodiments of the method of the invention, a single kind of fusion product may be generated for each cell (or per reactor) or a plurality of different kinds of fusion products may be generated for each cell (or per reactor). Such plurality may be at least 2, or it may be in the range of from 2 to 500, or from 2 to 200, or from 2 to 100, or from 2 to 20. In one embodiment, such plurality may be in the range of from 2 to 10. In some embodiments, such plurality is two.

After completion of PCA reaction (1020), emulsion (1017) is broken and fusion products (1026) are isolated (1024). Fusion products (1026) are represented in FIG. 1E as conjugates of sequence tags (X, Y or Z) and recombined nucleic acids (e.g. clonotypes) (C₁, C₂ and C₃). A variety of conventional methods may be used to isolate fusion products (1026) from the reaction mixture, including, but not limited to, column chromatography, ethanol precipitation, affinity purification after use of biotinylated primers, gel electrophoresis, or the like. As part of PCA reaction (1020) or after isolation (1024), additional sequences may be added to fusion products (1026) as necessary for sequencing (1028). Sequencing may be carried out using a conventional high-throughput instrument, e.g. Genome Analyzer IIx (Illumina, Inc., San Diego), or the like.

Polymerase cycling assembly (PCA) reactions permit a plurality of nucleic acid fragments to be fused together to form a single fusion product in one or more cycles of fragment annealing and polymerase extension, e.g. Xiong et al, FEBS Micro biol. Rev., 32: 522-540 (2008). PCA reactions come in many formats. In one format of interest, PCA follows a plurality of polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) taking place in a common reaction volume, wherein each component PCR includes at least one linking primer that permits strands from the resulting amplicon to anneal to strands from another amplicon in the reaction and to be extended to form a fusion product or a precursor of a fusion product. PCA in its various formats (and under various alternative names) is a well-known method for fragment assembly and gene synthesis, several forms of which are disclosed in the following references: Yon et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 17: 4895 (1989); Chen et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 116: 8799-8800 (1994); Stemmer et al, Gene, 164: 49-53 (1995); Hoover et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 30: e43 (2002); Xiong et al, Biotechnology Advances, 26: 121-134 (2008); Xiong et al, FEBS Microbiol. Rev., 32: 522-540 (2008); and the like.

An exemplary (but not limiting) PCA format useful in the present embodiments is described in FIG. 1F, which illustrates a PCA scheme for joining two separate fragments A′ (1208) and B′ (1210) into a single fusion product (1222). Fragment A′ (1208) is amplified with primers (1200) and (1202) and fragment B′ (1210) is amplified with primers (1206) and (1204) in the same PCR mixture. Primers (1200) and (1206) are “outer” primers of the PCA reaction and primers (1202) and (1204) are the “inner” primers of the PCA reaction. Inner primers (1202) and (1204) each have a tail (1203 and 1205, respectively) that are not complementary to A′ or B′ (or adjacent sequences if A′ and B′ are segments imbedded in a longer sequence). Tails (1203) and (1205) are complementary to one another. Generally, such inner primer tails are selected for selective hybridization to its corresponding inner primer (and not elsewhere); but otherwise such tails may vary widely in length and sequence. In one aspect, such tails have a length in the range of from 8 to 30 nucleotides; or a length in the range of from 14 to 24 nucleotides. As the PCRs progress (1212), product fragments A (1215) and B (1217) are produced that incorporate tails (1203) and (1205) into end regions (1214) and (1216), respectively. During the PCRs product fragments A (1215) and B (1217) will denature and some of the “upper” strands (1215a) of A anneal (1218) to lower strands (1217b) of B and the 3′ ends are extended (1219) to form (1220) fusion product A-B (1222). Fusion product A-B (1222) may be further amplified by an excess of outer primers (1200) and (1206). In some embodiments, the region of fusion product (1222) formed from tails (1203) and (1205) may include one or more primer binding sites for use in later analysis, such as high-throughput sequencing. Typically, in PCA reactions the concentrations of outer primers are greater than the concentrations of inner primers so that amplification of the fusion product continues after initial formation. For example, in one embodiment for fusing two target nucleic acids outer primer concentration may be from about 10 to 100 times that of the inner primers, e.g. 1 μM for outer primers and 0.01 μM for inner primers. Otherwise, a PCA reaction may comprise the components of a PCR.

Single Cell Analysis. As mentioned above, in some embodiments of the invention, cells from a population are disposed in reactors each containing a single cell. This may be accomplished by a variety of large-scale single-cell reactor platforms known in the art, e.g. Clarke et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0255471; Mathies et al, U.S. patent publication 2010/0285975; Edd et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0021984; Colston et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0173394; Love et al, International Patent Publication No. WO 2009/145925; Muraguchi et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0181859; Novak et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 50: 390-395 (2011); Chen et al, Biomed Microdevices, 11: 1223-1231 (2009); and the like, which are incorporated herein by reference. In one aspect, cells are disposed in wells of a microwell array where reactions, such as PCA reactions, take place; in another aspect, cells are disposed in micelles of a water-in-oil emulsion, where micelles serve as reactors. Micelle reactors generated by microfluidics devices, e.g. Mathies et al (cited above) or Edd et al (cited above), are of particular interest because uniform- sized micelles may be generated with lower shear and stress on cells than in bulk emulsification processes. Compositions and techniques for emulsifications, including carrying out amplification reactions, such as PCRs, in micelles is found in the following references, which are incorporated by reference: Becher, “Emulsions: Theory and Practice,” (Oxford University Press, 2001); Griffiths and Tawfik, U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,103; Tawfik and Griffiths, Nature Biotechnology, 16: 652-656 (1998); Nakano et al, J. Biotechnology, 102: 117-124 (2003); Dressman et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 100: 8817-8822 (2003); Dressman et al, U.S. Pat. No. 8,048,627; Berka et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,842,457 and 8,012,690; Diehl et al, Nature Methods, 3: 551-559 (2006); Williams et al, Nature Methods, 3: 545-550 (2006); Zeng et al, Analytical Chemistry, 82(8): 3183-3190 (2010); Micellula DNA Emulsion & Purification Kit instructions (EUR_(x), Gdansk, Poland, 2011); and the like. In one embodiment, the mixture of homogeneous sequence tags (e.g. beads) and reaction mixture is added dropwise into a spinning mixture of biocompatible oil (e.g., light mineral oil, Sigma) and allowed to emulsify. In another embodiment, the homogeneous sequence tags and reaction mixture are added dropwise into a cross-flow of biocompatible oil. The oil used may be supplemented with one or more biocompatible emulsion stabilizers. These emulsion stabilizers may include Atlox 4912, Span 80, and other recognized and commercially available suitable stabilizers. In some embodiments, the emulsion is heat stable to allow thermal cycling, e.g., to at least 94° C., at least 95° C., or at least 96° C. Preferably, the droplets formed range in size from about 5 microns to about 500 microns, more preferably from about 10 microns to about 350 microns, even more preferably from about 50 to 250 microns, and most preferably from about 100 microns to about 200 microns. Advantageously, cross-flow fluid mixing allows for control of the droplet formation, and uniformity of droplet size.

In some embodiments, micelles are produced having a uniform distribution of volumes so that reagents available in such reactors result in similarly amplified target nucleic acids and sequence tags. That is, widely varying reactor volumes, e.g. micelle volumes, may lead to amplification failures and/or widely varying degrees of amplification. Such failures and variation would preclude or increase the difficulty of making quantitative comparisons of target nucleic acids in individual cells of a population, e.g. differences in gene expression. In one aspect, micelles are produced that have a distribution of volumes with a coefficient of variation (CV) of thirty percent or less. In some embodiments, micelles have a distribution of volumes with a CV of twenty percent of less.

Cells of a tissue sample and antigen reagent may be suspended in a reaction mixture prior to disposition into reactors. In one aspect, a reaction mixture is a PCA reaction mixture and is substantially the same as a PCR reaction mixture with at least one pair of inner (or linking) primers and at least one pair of outer primers. In some embodiments, a step of lysing cells may be accomplished by heating cells to a temperature of 95° C. or above in the presence of a nonionic detergent, e.g. 0.1% Triton X-100 or Tween-20, for a period prior to carrying out an amplification reaction. In one embodiment, such period of elevated temperature may be from 10-20 minutes. Alternatively, a step of lysing cells may be accomplished by one or more cycles of heating and cooling, e.g. 96° C. for 15 min followed by 10° C. for 10 min, in the presence of a nonionic detergent, e.g. 0.1% Triton X-100 or Tween-20. Guidance for carrying out a lysing step is disclosed in Brown et al, J. R. Soc. Interface 5: S131-S138 (2008).

Clearly many microfluidics device configurations may be employed to generate micelles containing single cells, e.g. Zagoni et al, chapter 2, Methods of Cell Biology, 102: 25-48 (2011); Bronzes, chapter 10, Methods of Cell Biology, 102: 105-139 (2011); Wiklund et al, chapter 14, Methods of Cell Biology, 102: 177-196 (2011); Le Gac et al, chapter 7, Methods of Molecular Biology, 853: 65-82 (2012); and the like.

In some embodiments, this aspect of the invention for determining antigen-specific T cells may be implemented with the following steps: (a) exposing under interaction conditions a tissue sample containing T cells to antigen reagents labeled with sequence tags; (b) disposing in multiple reactors single T cells specifically bound to at least one antigen reagent, each reactor containing a polymerase cycling assembly (PCA) reaction mixture comprising a pair of outer primers and one or more pairs of linking primers, at least one pair of such outer and linking primers being specific for a recombined nucleic acid encoding a segment of a TCR chain of the T cell and one or more pairs of such outer and linking primers being specific for a sequence tag attached to the antigen reagent; (c) performing a PCA reaction in the reactors to form fusion products comprising said recombined nucleic acids and said sequence tag; (d) spatially isolating individual molecules of fusion products from the reactors; (e) sequencing the spatially isolated fusion products from the reactors to generate sequence reads from which pairs of clonotypes and sequence tags are determined; and (f) identifying antigen-specificity of T cells by their clonotype and sequence tag pairs. In some embodiments, the reactors are aqueous micelles of a water-in-oil emulsion. In some embodiments, aqueous micelles are generated by a microfluidics device. In some embodiments, the reactors are nanoliter wells in a planar substrate. In some embodiments, a further step of lysing the single T cells in the reactors is carried out prior to performing the PCA reaction.

Antigens

An antigen may be any compound or composition capable of eliciting a cell-mediated immune response (that is, an adaptive immune response), particularly in a mammal, such as a human. In some embodiments, an antigen may be any compound that can be recognized by a T cell in the context of the MHC molecule. More particularly, antigens include, but is not limited to, cells, tissue extracts, tissue or cell lysates, proteins, individually or as a mixture, a plurality of proteins, peptides, mixtures of peptides, lipids, carbohydrates, sugars, and the like. An antigen can be characteristic of a disease, such as an infectious disease, an autoimmune disease, or a cancer. The antigen can be, for example, a viral antigen, a bacterial antigen, a cancer antigen, etc. In some embodiments, an antigen is a cancer antigen or a viral antigen. By “cancer antigen” is meant any molecule (e.g., protein, peptide, lipid, carbohydrate, etc.) solely or predominantly expressed or over-expressed by a tumor cell or cancer cell, such that the antigen is associated with the tumor or cancer.

A cancer antigen may be a cancer antigen of only one type of cancer or tumor, such that the cancer antigen is associated with or characteristic of only one type of cancer or tumor. Alternatively, a cancer antigen may be a cancer antigen (e.g., may be characteristic) of more than one type of cancer or tumor. For example, a cancer antigen may be expressed by both breast and prostate cancer cells and not expressed at all by normal, non-tumor, or non-cancer cells, or expressed only minimally. A cancer antigen may a melanoma cancer antigen or a breast cancer antigen. Exemplary cancer antigens include those of the group consisting of gp100, MART-1, NY-ESO-1, a member of the MAGE family of proteins, e.g., MAGE-A1, mesothelin, Tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2, PMSA, Her-2, and p53.

An antigen may be a viral antigen. In some embodiments, “viral antigen” means those antigens encoded by a part of a viral genome which can be detected by a specific immunological response. Viral antigens include, for example, a viral coat protein, an influenza viral antigen, an HIV antigen, a Hepatitis B antigen, or a Hepatitis C antigen.

An antigen can be naturally, artificially, synthetically, or recombinantly produced. Thus, an antigen can be a synthetic, recombinant, isolated, and/or purified protein, polypeptide, or peptide. Methods of making or obtaining such antigens are known in the art. For example, suitable methods of de novo synthesizing polypeptides and proteins (e.g., antigenic polypeptides and proteins) are described in Chan et al., Fmoc Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2005; Peptide and Protein Drug Analysis, ed. Reid, R., Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2000; Epitope Mapping, ed. Westwoood et al., Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2000; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,752. Also, polypeptides and proteins (e.g., antigenic polypeptides and proteins) can be recombinantly produced using nucleic acids which encode the polypeptide or protein using standard recombinant methods. See, for instance, Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 3rd ed., Cold Spring Harbor Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. 2001; and Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Greene Publishing Associates and John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1994. The nucleotide sequences of many antigens are known in the art and are available from the GenBank database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. Further, an antigen can be isolated and/or purified from a source, such as a plant, a bacterium, an insect, a mammal, e.g., a rat, a human, etc. Methods of isolation and purification are well-known in the art.

An antigen can be a free antigen, e.g., unbound antigenic peptide (e.g., a free peptide), or can be a bound antigen, e.g., an MHC-peptide tetramer or an antigenic peptide presented by a carrier cell which was pulsed with the peptide.

In some embodiments, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (for example, which may be obtained from blood, for example, as a leukapheris product) from a subject may be cultured directly in the presence of antigen, to load antigen presenting cells (APCs) among the PBMCs with the antigen and to activate/stimulate antigen-specific T cells present in the PBMC. In this regard, PBMC may be collected from an individual, contacted with an antigen of interest, such as a tumor antigen, or a viral lysate, etc. In this manner, the APCs present in the PBMCs are loaded with the antigen, which is then presented to the T cells present in the sample. In some embodiments, antigen-specific T cells may be activated with peptide-MHC tetramers, see for example Altman, et al., Science 1998 Jun. 19; 280(5371):1821. In some embodiments, a protein antigen may be exposed to T cells indirectly by generating a set of peptides for binding to MHC molecules, where the sequences of the peptides are based on the amino acid sequence of the protein, e.g. Stickler et al, Toxicol. Sci., 77(2): 280-289 (2004). In some such embodiments, peptides are overlapping peptides covering the protein. In some embodiments, peptides each have a size of from 10 to 20 amino acids.

T cells can be obtained from a number of sources, including peripheral blood mononuclear cells, bone marrow, thymus, tissue biopsy, tumor, lymph node tissue, gut associated lymphoid tissue, mucosa associated lymphoid tissue, spleen tissue, or any other lymphoid tissue, and tumors. T cells can be obtained from T cell lines and from autologous or allogeneic sources. T cells may be obtained from a single individual or a population of individuals, for example, a population of individual who all suffer from the same disease, such as, a cancer or an infectious disease.

In some embodiments, cells from the circulating blood of an individual are obtained by apheresis or leukapheresis. The apheresis product typically contains lymphocytes, including T cells, monocytes, granulocytes, B cells, other nucleated white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. In one embodiment, the cells collected by apheresis or leukapheresis may be washed to remove the plasma fraction and to place the cells in an appropriate buffer or media for subsequent processing steps. In one embodiment of the invention, the cells are washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS). In an alternative embodiment, the wash solution lacks calcium and may lack magnesium or may lack many if not all divalent cations. As those of ordinary skill in the art would readily appreciate a washing step may be accomplished by methods known to those in the art, such as by using a semi-automated “flow-through” centrifuge (for example, the Cobe 2991 cell processor, Baxter) according to the manufacturer's instructions. After washing, the cells may be resuspended in a variety of biocompatible buffers, such as, for example, Ca++/Mg++ free PBS. Alternatively, the undesirable components of the apheresis sample may be removed and the cells directly resuspended in culture media.

In other embodiments, T cells are isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes by lysing the red blood cells and by centrifugation through a PERCOLL™ gradient. A specific subpopulation of T cells, such as CD28+, CD4+, CD8+, CD45RA+, and CD45RO+ T cells, can be further isolated by positive or negative selection techniques. For example, CD3+, CD28+ T cells can be positively selected using CD3/CD28 conjugated magnetic beads (e.g., DYNABEADS® M-450 CD3/CD28 T Cell Expander). In some embodiments, enrichment of a T cell population by negative selection can be accomplished with a combination of antibodies directed to surface markers unique to the negatively selected cells. One such method is cell sorting and/or selection via negative magnetic immunoadherence or flow cytometry that uses a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies directed to cell surface markers present on the cells negatively selected. For example, to enrich for CD4+ cells by negative selection, a monoclonal antibody cocktail typically includes antibodies to CD14, CD20, CD11b, CD16, HLA-DR, and CD8.

Another method for preparing T cells for stimulation is to freeze the cells after the washing step, which does not require the monocyte-removal step. Wishing not to be bound by theory, the freeze and subsequent thaw step provides a more uniform product by removing granulocytes and, to some extent, monocytes in the cell population. After the washing step that removes plasma and platelets, the cells may be suspended in a freezing solution. While many freezing solutions and parameters are known in the art and will be useful in this context, one method involves using PBS containing 20% DMSO and 8% human serum albumin (HSA), or other suitable cell freezing media. This is then diluted 1:1 with media so that the final concentration of DMSO and HSA are 10% and 4%, respectively. The cells are then frozen to −80° C. at a rate of 1° per minute and stored in the vapor phase of a liquid nitrogen storage tank.

Uses of Reconstituted TCRs

Reconstituted T cell receptors have a variety of uses both individually and as a group, including, but not limited to, as binding compounds for immunotherapy, as components of transfected T cells for adoptive immunotherapy, as antigen sources in vaccines, and as indicators of immune status. Matched TCR chains in soluble format may be used as high affinity binding compounds linked to T cell capturing agents for unique anti-cancer therapeutics, e.g. as taught by Jakobsen et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,329,731 and 7,666,604; which are incorporated herein by reference. Matched TCR chains may be used to construct vectors which may, in turn, be used to transfect autologous T cells for adoptive immunotherapy of a patient. In one embodiment of this application, samples from which TCRs are analyzed may be taken before and after a patient has been immunized with a cancer antigen, so that elevated anti-cancer TCR chains are readily matched and selected. References disclosing such applications include Turcotte et al, Adv. Surg., 45: 341-360 (2011); Morgan et al, Science, 314: 126-129 (2006); Walchli et al, PlosOne, 6: e27930 (2011); Robbins et al, U.S. patent publication 2010/0034834; and the like.

A population of matched or reconstituted TCRs from a sample comprises a unique profile of an individual's immune system, which contains much more information than profiles of single-sequence clonotypes. That is, a population of matched TCR chains or matched heavy and light chain immunoglobulins comprises a clonotype profile where the clonotypes are pairs of nucleotide sequences that encode pairs of TCR chains expressed in the same T cell or pairs of heavy and light chain immunoglobulins expressed in the same B cell. In both cases, such pairs may be related directly to T cell function, for example, by interaction with sets of MHC tetramer-peptide complexes, e.g. Palmowski et al, Immunol. Rev., 188: 155-163 (2002); Hadrup et al, Nature Methods, 6: 520-526 (2009), or to B cell function, for example, by ELISAs, e.g. Reddy et al, Nature Biotechnology, 28(9): 965-969 (2010). In one embodiment, clonotype profiles of matched immune receptor chains comprise at least 100 clonotype pairs, wherein each clonotype of the pair comprises a sequence of from 30 to 300 nucleotides. In another embodiment, clonotype profiles of matched immune receptor chains comprise at least 500 clonotype pairs, wherein each clonotype of the pair comprises a sequence of from 30 to 300 nucleotides. In another embodiment, clonotype profiles of matched immune receptor chains comprise at least 1000 clonotype pairs, wherein each clonotype of the pair comprises a sequence of from 30 to 300 nucleotides. In still another embodiment, such clonotype profiles of matched immune receptor chains comprise pairs of TCRα and TCRβ clonotypes. In another embodiment, such clonotype profiles of matched immune receptor chains comprise pairs of TCRγ and TCRδ clonotypes.

Samples

Samples, or tissue samples, of T-cells (T lymphocytes) may include, for example, helper T cells (effector T cells or Th cells), cytotoxic T cells (CTLs), memory T cells, and regulatory T cells, as well as other cell types normally found in a tissue sample. In one aspect, a sample of T cells includes at least 1,000 T cells; but more typically, a sample includes at least 10,000 T cells, and more typically, at least 100,000 T cells. In another aspect, a sample includes a number of T cells in the range of 1000 to 100,000 cells.

Samples used in the methods of the invention can come from a variety of tissues as noted above, including, for example, tumor tissue, blood and blood plasma, lymph fluid, cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and the spinal cord, synovial fluid surrounding bone joints, and the like. In one embodiment, the sample is a blood sample. The blood sample can be about 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, or 5.0 mL. The sample can be a tumor biopsy. The biopsy can be from, for example, from a tumor of the brain, liver, lung, heart, colon, kidney, or bone marrow. Any biopsy technique used by those skilled in the art can be used for isolating a sample from a subject. For example, a biopsy can be an open biopsy, in which general anesthesia is used. The biopsy can be a closed biopsy, in which a smaller cut is made than in an open biopsy. The biopsy can be a core or incisional biopsy, in which part of the tissue is removed. The biopsy can be an excisional biopsy, in which attempts to remove an entire lesion are made. The biopsy can be a fine needle aspiration biopsy, in which a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle.

The sample can be a biopsy, e.g., a skin biopsy. The biopsy can be from, for example, brain, liver, lung, heart, colon, kidney, or bone marrow. Any biopsy technique used by those skilled in the art can be used for isolating a sample from a subject. For example, a biopsy can be an open biopsy, in which general anesthesia is used. The biopsy can be a closed biopsy, in which a smaller cut is made than in an open biopsy. The biopsy can be a core or incisional biopsy, in which part of the tissue is removed. The biopsy can be an excisional biopsy, in which attempts to remove an entire lesion are made. The biopsy can be a fine needle aspiration biopsy, in which a sample of tissue or fluid is removed with a needle.

As discussed more fully below, in some embodiments, a sample of lymphocytes is sufficiently large so that substantially every T cell or B cell with a distinct clonotype is represented therein, thereby forming a repertoire (as the term is used herein). In some embodiments, a sample is taken that contains with a probability of ninety-nine percent every clonotype of a population present at a frequency of 0.001 percent or greater. In another embodiment, a sample is taken that contains with a probability of ninety-nine percent every clonotype of a population present at a frequency of 0.0001 percent or greater. In one embodiment, a sample of T cells includes at least a half million cells, and in another embodiment such sample includes at least one million cells.

Blood samples are of particular interest and may be obtained using conventional techniques, e.g. Innis et al, editors, PCR Protocols (Academic Press, 1990); or the like. For example, white blood cells may be separated from blood samples using convention techniques, e.g. RosetteSep kit (Stem Cell Technologies, Vancouver, Canada). Blood samples may range in volume from 100 μL to 10 mL; in one aspect, blood sample volumes are in the range of from 200 μL to 2 mL. Optionally, subsets of white blood cells, e.g. lymphocytes, may be further isolated using conventional techniques, e.g. fluorescently activated cell sorting (FACS)(Becton Dickinson, San Jose, Calif.), magnetically activated cell sorting (MACS)(Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn, Calif.), or the like.

Since the identifying recombinations are present in the DNA of each individual's adaptive immunity cells as well as their associated RNA transcripts, either RNA or DNA can be sequenced in the methods of the provided invention. A recombined sequence from a T-cell encoding a T cell receptor molecule, or a portion thereof, is referred to as a clonotype. The DNA or RNA can correspond to sequences from T-cell receptor (TCR) genes. For example, the DNA and RNA can correspond to sequences encoding α, β, γ, or δ chains of a TCR. In a majority of T-cells, the TCR is a heterodimer consisting of an α-chain and β-chain. The TCRα chain is generated by VJ recombination, and the β chain receptor is generated by V(D)J recombination. For the TCRβ chain, in humans there are 48 V segments, 2 D segments, and 13 J segments. Several bases may be deleted and others added (called N and P nucleotides) at each of the two junctions. In a minority of T-cells, the TCRs consist of γ and δ delta chains. The TCR γ chain is generated by VJ recombination, and the TCR δ chain is generated by V(D)J recombination (Kenneth Murphy, Paul Travers, and Mark Walport, Janeway's Immunology 7th edition, Garland Science, 2007).

Amplification of Nucleic Acid Populations

Amplicons of target populations of nucleic acids may be generated by a variety of amplification techniques. In one aspect of the invention, multiplex PCR is used to amplify members of a mixture of nucleic acids, particularly mixtures comprising recombined immune molecules such as T cell receptors, or portions thereof. Guidance for carrying out multiplex PCRs of such immune molecules is found in the following references, which are incorporated by reference: Faham and Willis, U.S. Pat. No. 8,236,503 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,628,927; Morley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,351; Gorski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,447; Dau, U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,096; Von Dongen et al, U.S. patent publication 2006/0234234; European patent publication EP 1544308B1; and the like.

After amplification of DNA from the genome (or amplification of nucleic acid in the form of cDNA by reverse transcribing RNA), the individual nucleic acid molecules can be isolated, optionally re-amplified, and then sequenced individually. Exemplary amplification protocols may be found in van Dongen et al, Leukemia, 17: 2257-2317 (2003) or van Dongen et al, U.S. patent publication 2006/0234234, which is incorporated by reference. Briefly, an exemplary protocol is as follows: Reaction buffer: ABI Buffer II or ABI Gold Buffer (Life Technologies, San Diego, Calif.); 50 μL final reaction volume; 100 ng sample DNA; 10 pmol of each primer (subject to adjustments to balance amplification as described below); dNTPs at 200 μM final concentration; MgCl₂ at 1.5 mM final concentration (subject to optimization depending on target sequences and polymerase); Taq polymerase (1-2 U/tube); cycling conditions: preactivation 7 min at 95° C.; annealing at 60° C.; cycling times: 30 s denaturation; 30 s annealing; 30s extension. Polymerases that can be used for amplification in the methods of the invention are commercially available and include, for example, Taq polymerase, AccuPrime polymerase, or Pfu. The choice of polymerase to use can be based on whether fidelity or efficiency is preferred.

Real time PCR, picogreen staining, nanofluidic electrophoresis (e.g. LabChip) or UV absorption measurements can be used in an initial step to judge the functional amount of amplifiable material.

In one aspect, multiplex amplifications are carried out so that relative amounts of sequences in a starting population are substantially the same as those in the amplified population, or amplicon. That is, multiplex amplifications are carried out with minimal amplification bias among member sequences of a sample population. In one embodiment, such relative amounts are substantially the same if each relative amount in an amplicon is within five fold of its value in the starting sample. In another embodiment, such relative amounts are substantially the same if each relative amount in an amplicon is within two fold of its value in the starting sample. As discussed more fully below, amplification bias in PCR may be detected and corrected using conventional techniques so that a set of PCR primers may be selected for a predetermined repertoire that provide unbiased amplification of any sample.

In one embodiment, amplification bias may be avoided by carrying out a two-stage amplification (as described in Faham and Willis, cited above) wherein a small number of amplification cycles are implemented in a first, or primary, stage using primers having tails non-complementary with the target sequences. The tails include primer binding sites that are added to the ends of the sequences of the primary amplicon so that such sites are used in a second stage amplification using only a single forward primer and a single reverse primer, thereby eliminating a primary cause of amplification bias. Preferably, the primary PCR will have a small enough number of cycles (e.g. 5-10) to minimize the differential amplification by the different primers. The secondary amplification is done with one pair of primers and hence the issue of differential amplification is minimal. One percent of the primary PCR is taken directly to the secondary PCR. Thirty-five cycles (equivalent to ˜28 cycles without the 100 fold dilution step) used between the two amplifications were sufficient to show a robust amplification irrespective of whether the breakdown of cycles were: one cycle primary and 34 secondary or 25 primary and 10 secondary. Even though ideally doing only 1 cycle in the primary PCR may decrease the amplification bias, there are other considerations. One aspect of this is representation. This plays a role when the starting input amount is not in excess to the number of reads ultimately obtained. For example, if 1,000,000 reads are obtained and starting with 1,000,000 input molecules then taking only representation from 100.000 molecules to the secondary amplification would degrade the precision of estimating the relative abundance of the different species in the original sample. The 100 fold dilution between the 2 steps means that the representation is reduced unless the primary PCR amplification generated significantly more than 100 molecules. This indicates that a minimum 8 cycles (256 fold), but more comfortably 10 cycle (˜1,000 fold), may be used. The alternative to that is to take more than 1% of the primary PCR into the secondary but because of the high concentration of primer used in the primary PCR, a big dilution factor is can be used to ensure these primers do not interfere in the amplification and worsen the amplification bias between sequences. Another alternative is to add a purification or enzymatic step to eliminate the primers from the primary PCR to allow a smaller dilution of it. In this example, the primary PCR was 10 cycles and the second 25 cycles.

Generating Sequence Reads for Clonotypes

Any high-throughput technique for sequencing nucleic acids can be used in the method of the invention. Preferably, such technique has a capability of generating in a cost-effective manner a volume of sequence data from which at least 1000 clonotypes can be determined, and preferably, from which at least 10,000 to 1,000,000 clonotypes can be determined. DNA sequencing techniques include classic dideoxy sequencing reactions (Sanger method) using labeled terminators or primers and gel separation in slab or capillary, sequencing by synthesis using reversibly terminated labeled nucleotides, pyrosequencing, 454 sequencing, allele specific hybridization to a library of labeled oligonucleotide probes, sequencing by synthesis using allele specific hybridization to a library of labeled clones that is followed by ligation, real time monitoring of the incorporation of labeled nucleotides during a polymerization step, polony sequencing, and SOLiD sequencing. Sequencing of the separated molecules has been carried out by sequential or single extension reactions using polymerases or ligases as well as by single or sequential differential hybridizations with libraries of probes. These reactions have been performed on many clonal sequences in parallel including demonstrations in current commercial applications of over 100 million sequences in parallel. These sequencing approaches can thus be used to study the repertoire of T-cell receptor (TCR) and/or B-cell receptor (BCR). In one aspect of the invention, high-throughput methods of sequencing are employed that comprise a step of spatially isolating individual molecules on a solid surface where they are sequenced in parallel. Such solid surfaces may include nonporous surfaces (such as in Solexa sequencing, e.g. Bentley et al, Nature,456: 53-59 (2008) or Complete Genomics sequencing, e.g. Drmanac et al, Science, 327: 78-81 (2010)), arrays of wells, which may include bead- or particle-bound templates (such as with 454, e.g. Margulies et al, Nature, 437: 376-380 (2005) or Ion Torrent sequencing, U.S. patent publication 2010/0137143 or 2010/0304982), micromachined membranes (such as with SMRT sequencing, e.g. Eid et al, Science, 323: 133-138 (2009)), or bead arrays (as with SOLiD sequencing or polony sequencing, e.g. Kim et al, Science, 316: 1481-1414 (2007)). In another aspect, such methods comprise amplifying the isolated molecules either before or after they are spatially isolated on a solid surface. Prior amplification may comprise emulsion-based amplification, such as emulsion PCR, or rolling circle amplification. Of particular interest is Solexa-based sequencing where individual template molecules are spatially isolated on a solid surface, after which they are amplified in parallel by bridge PCR to form separate clonal populations, or clusters, and then sequenced, as described in Bentley et al (cited above) and in manufacturer's instructions (e.g. TruSeq™ Sample Preparation Kit and Data Sheet, Illumina, Inc., San Diego, Calif., 2010); and further in the following references: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,090,592; 6,300,070; 7,115,400; and EP0972081B1; which are incorporated by reference. In one embodiment, individual molecules disposed and amplified on a solid surface form clusters in a density of at least 10⁵ clusters per cm²; or in a density of at least 5×10⁵ per cm²; or in a density of at least 10⁶ clusters per cm². In one embodiment, sequencing chemistries are employed having relatively high error rates. In such embodiments, the average quality scores produced by such chemistries are monotonically declining functions of sequence read lengths.

In one aspect, a sequence-based clonotype profile of an individual is obtained using the following steps: (a) obtaining a nucleic acid sample, for example, a sample containing T-cells of the individual; (b) spatially isolating individual molecules derived from such nucleic acid sample, the individual molecules comprising at least one template generated from a nucleic acid in the sample, which template comprises a somatically rearranged region or a portion thereof, each individual molecule being capable of producing at least one sequence read; (c) sequencing said spatially isolated individual molecules to provide sequence reads; and (d) determining abundances of different sequences of the nucleic acid molecules from the nucleic acid sample to generate the clonotype profile. In some embodiments, the step of sequencing includes coalescing at least a plurality of sequence reads to form each clonotype. As described more fully below, such a step of coalescing is a process of combining sequence reads with error rates (for example, from sequencing and/or amplification errors) to produce clonotypes that are correct with a high degree of likelihood, such as with a 99% confidence level.

In one aspect, for each sample from an individual, the sequencing technique used in the methods of the invention generates sequences of least 1000 sequence reads per run; in another aspect, such technique generates sequences of at least 10,000 sequence reads per run; in another aspect, such technique generates sequences of at least 100,000 sequence reads per run; in another aspect, such technique generates sequences of at least 500,000 ssequence reads per run; and in another aspect, such technique generates sequences of at least 1,000,000 sequence reads per run. From such sequence reads clonotypes are determined, for example, as described below, or as disclosed in Faham and Willis (described above).

The sequencing techniques used in the methods generate sequence reads having lengths of at least 30 nucleotides. In some embodiments, a step of sequencing generates sequence reads having lengths of at least 50 nucleotides; and in some embodiments, a step of sequencing generates sequence reads having lengths of at least 100 nucleotides.

Clonotype Determination from Sequence Data

Constructing clonotypes from sequence read data depends in part on the sequencing method used to generate such data, as the different methods have different expected read lengths and data quality. In one approach, a Solexa sequencer is employed to generate sequence read data for analysis. In one embodiment, a sample is obtained that provides at least 0.5-1.0×10⁶ lymphocytes to produce at least 1 million template molecules, which after optional amplification may produce a corresponding one million or more clonal populations of template molecules (or clusters). For most high throughput sequencing approaches, including the Solexa approach, such over sampling at the cluster level is desirable so that each template sequence is determined with a large degree of redundancy to increase the accuracy of sequence determination. For Solexa-based implementations, preferably the sequence of each independent template is determined 10 times or more. For other sequencing approaches with different expected read lengths and data quality, different levels of redundancy may be used for comparable accuracy of sequence determination. Those of ordinary skill in the art recognize that the above parameters, e.g. sample size, redundancy, and the like, are design choices related to particular applications.

In one aspect of the invention, sequences of clonotypes (including but not limited to those derived from TCRα, TCRβ, TCRγ, and/or TCRδ, may be determined by combining information from a plurality of sequence reads sequence reads, for example, along the V(D)J regions of the selected chains. In another aspect, sequences of clonotypes are determined by combining information from a plurality of sequence reads. Such pluralities of sequence reads may include one or more sequence reads along a sense strand (i.e. “forward” sequence reads) and one or more sequence reads along its complementary strand (i.e. “reverse” sequence reads).

Sequence reads of the invention may have a wide variety of lengths, depending in part on the sequencing technique being employed. For example, for some techniques, several trade-offs may arise in its implementation, for example, (i) the number and lengths of sequence reads per template and (ii) the cost and duration of a sequencing operation. In one embodiment, sequence reads are in the range of from 20 to 400 nucleotides; in another embodiment, sequence reads are in a range of from 30 to 200 nucleotides; in still another embodiment, sequence reads are in the range of from 30 to 120 nucleotides. In one embodiment, 2 to 1000 sequence reads are generated for determining the sequence of each clonotype; in another embodiment, 2 to 100 sequence reads are generated for determining the sequence of each clonotype; and in another embodiment, 2 to 10 sequence reads are generated for determining the sequence of each clonotype; and in still another embodiment, at least 10 sequence reads are generated for determining the sequence of each clonotype. In the foregoing embodiments, the numbers given are exclusive of sequence reads used to identify samples from different individuals. The lengths of the various sequence reads used in the embodiments described below may also vary based on the information that is sought to be captured by the read; for example, the starting location and length of a sequence read may be designed to provide the length of an NDN region as well as its nucleotide sequence; thus, sequence reads spanning the entire NDN region are selected. In other aspects, one or more sequence reads that in combination (but not separately) encompass a D and /or NDN region are sufficient.

In another aspect of the invention, sequences of clonotypes are determined in part by aligning sequence reads to one or more V region reference sequences and one or more J region reference sequences, and in part by base determination without alignment to reference sequences, such as in the highly variable NDN region. A variety of alignment algorithms may be applied to the sequence reads and reference sequences. For example, guidance for selecting alignment methods is available in Batzoglou, Briefings in Bioinformatics, 6: 6-22 (2005), which is incorporated by reference. In one aspect, whenever V reads or C reads (as mentioned above) are aligned to V and J region reference sequences, a tree search algorithm may be employed, e.g. as described generally in Gusfield (cited above) and Cormen et al, Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition (The MIT Press, 2009).

In another aspect, an end of at least one forward read and an end of at least one reverse read overlap in an overlap region (e.g. 308 in FIG. 3B), so that the bases of the reads are in a reverse complementary relationship with one another. Thus, for example, if a forward read in the overlap region is “5′-acgttgc”, then a reverse read in a reverse complementary relationship is “5′-gcaacgt” within the same overlap region. In one aspect, bases within such an overlap region are determined, at least in part, from such a reverse complementary relationship. That is, a likelihood of a base call (or a related quality score) in a prospective overlap region is increased if it preserves, or is consistent with, a reverse complementary relationship between the two sequence reads. In one aspect, clonotypes of TCR β and IgH chains (illustrated in FIG. 3B) are determined by at least one sequence read starting in its J region and extending in the direction of its associated V region (referred to herein as a “C read” (304)) and at least one sequence read starting in its V region and extending in the direction of its associated J region (referred to herein as a “V read” (306)). Overlap region (308) may or may not encompass the NDN region (315) as shown in FIG. 3B. Overlap region (308) may be entirely in the J region, entirely in the NDN region, entirely in the V region, or it may encompass a J region-NDN region boundary or a V region-NDN region boundary, or both such boundaries (as illustrated in FIG. 3B). Typically, such sequence reads are generated by extending sequencing primers, e.g. (302) and (310) in FIG. 3B, with a polymerase in a sequencing-by-synthesis reaction, e.g. Metzger, Nature Reviews Genetics, 11: 31-46 (2010); Fuller et al, Nature Biotechnology, 27: 1013-1023 (2009). The binding sites for primers (302) and (310) are predetermined, so that they can provide a starting point or anchoring point for initial alignment and analysis of the sequence reads. In one embodiment, a C read is positioned so that it encompasses the D and/or NDN region of the TCR β or IgH chain and includes a portion of the adjacent V region, e.g. as illustrated in FIGS. 3B and 3C. In one aspect, the overlap of the V read and the C read in the V region is used to align the reads with one another. In other embodiments, such alignment of sequence reads is not necessary, e.g. with TCRβ chains, so that a V read may only be long enough to identify the particular V region of a clonotype. This latter aspect is illustrated in FIG. 3C. Sequence read (330) is used to identify a V region, with or without overlapping another sequence read, and another sequence read (332) traverses the NDN region and is used to determine the sequence thereof. Portion (334) of sequence read (332) that extends into the V region is used to associate the sequence information of sequence read (332) with that of sequence read (330) to determine a clonotype. For some sequencing methods, such as base-by-base approaches like the Solexa sequencing method, sequencing run time and reagent costs are reduced by minimizing the number of sequencing cycles in an analysis. Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, amplicon (300) is produced with sample tag (312) to distinguish between clonotypes originating from different biological samples, e.g. different patients. Sample tag (312) may be identified by annealing a primer to primer binding region (316) and extending it (314) to produce a sequence read across tag (312), from which sample tag (312) is decoded.

Reducing a set of reads for a given sample to a set of distinct clonotypes and recording the number of reads for each clonotype would be a trivial computational problem if sequencing technology was error free. However, in the presence of sequencing errors, each genuine clonotype is surrounded by a ‘cloud’ of reads with varying numbers of errors with respect to the its sequence. The “cloud” of sequencing errors drops off in density as the distance increases from the clonotype in sequence space. A variety of algorithms are available for converting sequence reads into clonotypes. In one approach, coalescing of sequence reads (that is, merging candidate clonotypes determined to have one or more sequencing errors) depends on at least three factors: the number of sequences obtained for each of the clonotypes being compared; the number of bases at which they differ; and the sequencing quality score at the positions at which they are discordant. A likelihood ratio may be constructed and assessed that is based on the expected error rates and binomial distribution of errors. For example, two clonotypes, one with 150 reads and the other with 2 reads with one difference between them in an area of poor sequencing quality will likely be coalesced as they are likely to be generated by sequencing error. On the other hand two clonotypes, one with 100 reads and the other with 50 reads with two differences between them are not coalesced as they are considered to be unlikely to be generated by sequencing error. In one embodiment of the invention, the algorithm described below may be used for determining clonotypes from sequence reads. In one approach, sequence reads are first converted into candidate clonotypes. Such a conversion depends on the sequencing platform employed. For platforms that generate high Q score long sequence reads, the sequence read or a portion thereof may be taken directly as a candidate clonotype. For platforms that generate lower Q score shorter sequence reads, some alignment and assembly steps may be required for converting a set of related sequence reads into a candidate clonotype. For example, for Solexa-based platforms, in some embodiments, candidate clonotypes are generated from collections of paired reads from multiple clusters, e.g. 10 or more, as mentioned above.

The cloud of sequence reads surrounding each candidate clonotype can be modeled using the binomial distribution and a simple model for the probability of a single base error. This latter error model can be inferred from mapping V and J segments or from the clonotype finding algorithm itself, via self-consistency and convergence. A model is constructed for the probability of a given ‘cloud’ sequence Y with read count C₂ and E errors (with respect to sequence X) being part of a true clonotype sequence X with perfect read count C₁ under the null model that X is the only true clonotype in this region of sequence space. A decision is made whether or not to coalesce sequence Y into the clonotype X according the parameters C₁, C_(2,) and E. For any given C₁ and E a max value C₂ is pre-calculated for deciding to coalesce the sequence Y. The max values for C₂ are chosen so that the probability of failing to coalesce Y under the null hypothesis that Y is part of clonotype X is less than some value P after integrating over all possible sequences Y with error E in the neighborhood of sequence X. The value P is controls the behavior of the algorithm and makes the coalescing more or less permissive.

If a sequence Y is not coalesced into clonotype X because its read count is above the threshold C₂ for coalescing into clonotype X then it becomes a candidate for seeding separate clonotypes (such as with candidate clonotype 2. An algorithm implementing such principles would also make sure that any other sequences Y2, Y3, etc. which are ‘nearer’ to this sequence Y (that had been deemed independent of X) are not aggregated into X. This concept of ‘nearness’ includes both error counts with respect to Y and X and the absolute read count of X and Y, i.e. it is modeled in the same fashion as the above model for the cloud of error sequences around clonotype X. In this way ‘cloud’ sequences can be properly attributed to their correct clonotype if they happen to be ‘near’ more than one clonotype.

In some embodiments, an algorithm proceeds in a top down fashion by starting with the sequence X with the highest read count. This sequence seeds the first clonotype. Neighboring sequences are either coalesced into this clonotype if their counts are below the precalculated thresholds (see above), or left alone if they are above the threshold or ‘closer’ to another sequence that was not coalesced. After searching all neighboring sequences within a maximum error count, the process of coalescing reads into clonotype X is finished. Its reads and all reads that have been coalesced into it are accounted for and removed from the list of reads available for making other clonotypes. The next sequence is then moved on to with the highest read count. Neighboring reads are coalesced into this clonotype as above and this process is continued until there are no more sequences with read counts above a given threshold, e.g. until all sequences with more than 1 count have been used as seeds for clonotypes.

As mentioned above, in another embodiment of the above algorithm, a further test may be added for determining whether to coalesce a candidate sequence Y into an existing clonotype X, which takes into account quality score of the relevant sequence reads. The average quality score(s) are determined for sequence(s) Y (averaged across all reads with sequence Y) were sequences Y and X differ. If the average score is above a predetermined value then it is more likely that the difference indicates a truly different clonotype that should not be coalesced and if the average score is below such predetermined value then it is more likely that sequence Y is caused by sequencing errors and therefore should be coalesced into X. Successful implementation of the above algorithm for coalescing candidate clonotypes is dependent upon having an efficient way of finding all sequences with less than E errors (i.e. less than some sequence distance measure) from some input sequence X. One approach is using a sequence tree. The implementation of such trees has some unusual features in that the nodes of the tree are not restricted to being single letters of the DNA sequences of the candidate clonotypes. The nodes can have arbitrarily long sequences, which allows for a more efficient use of computer memory.

For example, all of the reads of a given sample are placed into the sequence tree. Each leaf nodes holds pointers to its associated reads. A unique sequence of a candidate clonotype is retrieved by traversing backwards in the tree from the leaf to the root node. The first sequence is placed into a simple tree with one root node and one leaf node that contains the full sequence of the read. Sequences are next added one by one. For each added sequence either a new branch is formed at the last point of common sequence between the read and the existing tree or add the read to an existing leaf node if the tree already contains the sequence. Having placed all the reads into the tree it is easy to use the tree for the following purposes: 1) Finding the highest read count: sorting leaf nodes by read count allows one to find the leaf node (i.e. sequence) with the most reads, and successively lower numbers of reads; 2) Finding neighboring leafs: for any sequence all paths through the tree which have less than X errors with respect to this sequence are searchable. A path is started at the root and branch this path into separate paths proceeding along the tree. The current error count of each path as proceeding along the tree is noted. When the error count exceeds the max allowed errors the given path is terminated. In this way large parts of the tree are pruned as early as possible. This is an efficient way of finding all paths (i.e. all leafs) within X errors from any given sequence.

TCRβ Repertoire Analysis

In this example, TCRβ chains are analyzed and clonotypes are determined. The analysis includes amplification, sequencing, and analyzing the TCRβ sequences. One primer is complementary to a common sequence in Cβ1 and Cβ2, and there are 34 V primers capable of amplifying all 48 V segments. Cβ1 or Cβ2 differ from each other at position 10 and 14 from the J/C junction. The primer for Cβ1 and Cβ2 ends at position 16 bp and has no preference for Cβ1 or Cβ2. The 34 V primers are modified from an original set of primers disclosed in Van Dongen et al, U.S. patent publication 2006/0234234, which is incorporated herein by reference. The modified primers are disclosed in Faham et al, U.S. patent publication 2010/0151471, which is also incorporated herein by reference.

The Illumina Genome Analyzer is used to sequence the amplicon produced by the above primers. A two-stage amplification is performed on messenger RNA transcripts (200), as illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2B, the first stage employing the above primers and a second stage to add common primers for bridge amplification and sequencing. As shown in FIG. 2A, a primary PCR is performed using on one side a 20 bp primer (202) whose 3′ end is 16 bases from the J/C junction (204) and which is perfectly complementary to Cβ1 (203) and the two alleles of Cβ2. In the V region (206) of RNA transcripts (200), primer set (212) is provided which contains primer sequences complementary to the different V region sequences (34 in one embodiment). Primers of set (212) also contain a non-complementary tail (214) that produces amplicon (216) having primer binding site (218) specific for P7 primers (220). After a conventional multiplex PCR, amplicon (216) is formed that contains the highly diverse portion of the J(D)V region (206, 208, and 210) of the mRNA transcripts and common primer binding sites (203 and 218) for a secondary amplification to add a sample tag (221) and primers (220 and 222) for cluster formation by bridge PCR. In the secondary PCR, on the same side of the template, a primer (222 in FIG. 2B and referred to herein as “C10-17-P5”) is used that has at its 3′ end the sequence of the 10 bases closest to the J/C junction, followed by 17 bp with the sequence of positions 15-31 from the JC junction, followed by the P5 sequence (224), which plays a role in cluster formation by bridge PCR in Solexa sequencing. (When the C10-17-P5 primer (222) anneals to the template generated from the first PCR, a 4 bp loop (position 11-14) is created in the template, as the primer hybridizes to the sequence of the 10 bases closest to the J/C junction and bases at positions 15-31 front the J/C junction. The looping of positions 11-14 eliminates differential amplification of templates carrying Cβ1 or Cβ2. Sequencing is then done with a primer complementary to the sequence of the 10 bases closest to the J/C junction and bases at positions 15-31 from the J/C junction (this primer is called C′). C10-17-P5 primer can be HPLC purified in order to ensure that all the amplified material has intact ends that can be efficiently utilized in the cluster formation.)

In FIG. 2A, the length of the overhang on the V primers (212) is preferably 14 bp. The primary PCR is helped with a shorter overhang (214). Alternatively, for the sake of the secondary PCR, the overhang in the V primer is used in the primary PCR as long as possible because the secondary PCR is priming from this sequence. A minimum size of overhang (214) that supports an efficient secondary PCR was investigated. Two series of V primers (for two different V segments) with overhang sizes from 10 to 30 with 2 bp steps were made. Using the appropriate synthetic sequences, the first PCR was performed with each of the primers in the series and gel electrophoresis was performed to show that all amplified.

As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the primary PCR uses 34 different V primers (212) that anneal to V region (206) of RNA templates (200) and contain a common 14 bp overhang on the 5′ tail. The 14 bp is the partial sequence of one of the Illumina sequencing primers (termed the Read 2 primer). The secondary amplification primer (220) on the same side includes P7 sequence, a tag (221), and Read 2 primer sequence (223) (this primer is called Read2_tagX_P7). The P7 sequence is used for cluster formation. Read 2 primer and its complement are used for sequencing the V segment and the tag respectively. A set of 96 of these primers with tags numbered 1 through 96 are created (see below). These primers are HPLC purified in order to ensure that all the amplified material has intact ends that can be efficiently utilized in the cluster formation.

As mentioned above, the second stage primer, C-10-17-P5 (222, FIG. 2B) has interrupted homology to the template generated in the first stage PCR. The efficiency of amplification using this primer has been validated. An alternative primer to C-10-17-P5, termed CsegP5, has perfect homology to the first stage C primer and a 5′ tail carrying P5. The efficiency of using C-10-17-P5 and CsegP5 in amplifying first stage PCR templates was compared by performing real time PCR. In several replicates, it was found that PCR using the C-10-17-P5 primer had little or no difference in efficiency compared with PCR using the CsegP5 primer.

Amplicon (230) resulting from the 2-stage amplification illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2C has the structure typically used with the Illumina sequencer as shown in FIG. 2C. Two primers that anneal to the outmost part of the molecule, Illumina primers P5 and P7 are used for solid phase amplification of the molecule (cluster formation). Three sequence reads are done per molecule. The first read of 100 bp is done with the C′ primer, which has a melting temperature that is appropriate for the Illumina sequencing process. The second read is 6 bp long only and is solely for the purpose of identifying the sample tag. It is generated using a tag primer provided by the manufacturer (Illumina). The final read is the Read 2 primer, also provided by the manufacturer (Illumina). Using this primer, a 100 bp read in the V segment is generated starting with the 1st PCR V primer sequence.

EXAMPLES

In this example steps common to some embodiments, such as the embodiment of FIG. 1C, are described for particular applications, including but not limited to, exposing a tissue sample comprising T cells to antigen, activating T cell in a tissue sample by antigen, obtaining recombined nucleic acids from T cells of a tissue sample, isolating (or recovering, or sorting, or separating) activated T cells, sequencing recombined nucleic acids, forming clonotypes, and determining clonotypes of antigen-specific T cells.

Tissue Samples. Characterized PBMCs were purchased from Cellular Technology Limited. Cells were thawed, washed and either lysed with RLT plus buffer (Qiagen) for nucleic acid purification or cultured overnight in the presence of peptides (see below) to identify antigen-specific T cells.

Antigen-Specific T Cell Assays, Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting. Antigen-specific cells were identified using a variety of assays: pentamer binding, cell surface marker upregulation (CD137, CD107) following short-term peptide incubation, and proliferation following relatively long-term peptide incubation. Pentamer-specific T cells were identified by incubating PBMCs with HCMV pp65₄₉₅₋₅₀₄ Pentamer (ProImmune) according to manufacturer's instructions. The procedures for obtaining viable antigen-specific T cells based on acquisition of the cell surface markers CD137/107 (for CD8 antigen-specific T cells) following brief in vitro incubation with peptides are well-known, e.g. Chattopadhyay et al, Nature Medicine, 11: 1113-1117 (2005); Meier et al, Cytometry A, 73: 1035-1042 (2008); Wolfl et al, Blood, 110: 201-210 (2007); Wolfl et al, Cytometry A, 73: 1043-1049 (2008); and the like. Briefly, complete media containing 15% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), non-essential amino acids, glutamine and antibiotics was used for peptide incubations. Thawed PBMCs were washed and suspended at ˜400,000 cells per well (96-well i-bottom plates) in complete media. Unconjugated antibodies directed against CD28 and CD49d were then added to the wells containing the suspended cells. Peptides derived from CMV pp65 (HCMVA (pp65) (JPT Peptide Technologies) were added directly to the cell/antibody mixture, according to manufacturer's instructions. A single peptide derived from CMV pp65 (sequence NLVPMVATV; herein referred to as ‘pp65₄₉₅’) was used at 2 μg/ml. pp65 ‘PepMix” and CEF+ peptide pools (JPT Peptide Technologies) were added directly to the cell/antibody mixture, according to manufacturer's instructions. Following addition of peptides, cells were incubated at 37° C. for ˜18 hours. Negative control incubations were prepared as outlined above without addition of peptides. At the end of the incubation, cells were harvested from the culture and stained with antibodies for analysis and sorting by flow cytometry. For each CD8 antigen-specific assay (CD137 and CD107), fluorescently conjugated antibodies to the following cell surface markers were used for flow cytometry: CD8, CD3 and either CD137 or CD107a and CD107b. Cells were then washed and suspended in PBS containing FBS (2%) and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) for exclusion of non-viable cells. Carboxyfluorescein diacetate, succinimidyl ester (CFSE)-labeled PBMCs were incubated as outlined above for 6 days in the presence of peptide and antibodies directed against CD28 and CD49d. Antigen-specific CD8+ T cells were identified and sorted based on CFSE dilution at day 6. Cells were acquired and sorted using a FACSAria (BD Biosciences) instrument. Sorted antigen-specific (CD3+CD8+CMVpentamer+, CD3+CD8+CD137+, CD3+CD8+CD107a/b+, or CD8+CFSE^(low)) and non-antigen-specific (CD3+CD8+CD137−, CD3+CD8+CD107a/b−) cells were pelleted and lysed in RLT Plus buffer for nucleic acid isolation. Analysis of flow cytometry data files was performed using FlowJo (Ashland, Oreg.).

RNA and cDNA Preparation. RNA (and DNA) was isolated using AllPrep DNA/RNA mini and/or micro kits, according to manufacturer's instructions (Qiagen). RNA was reverse transcribed to cDNA using Vilo kits (Life Technologies).

TCRβ Amplification and Sequencing. cDNA was amplified using locus specific primer sets for TCRβ. This amplification reaction reproducibly amplified all possible RNA transcripts found in the sample containing the rearranged TCRβ locus regardless of which variable (V) segment and which common constant (C) region allele each rearranged molecule possessed, while appending the necessary sequences for cluster formation and sample indexing.

First stage primers were designed so as to allow for the amplification of all known alleles of the germline sequences, as described above and in the following; Faham et al, Blood, 120: 5173-5180 (2012). At the 5′ ends of the V segment primers, universal sequences complementary to second stage PCR primers were appended. Primers were optimized such that each possible V and C segment was amplified at a similar rate so as to minimally skew the repertoire frequency distribution during the amplification process. Specificity of the primers was, in contrast, not optimized as the primer sequences could be mapped and removed from the eventual sequence read. Thus a given sequence may have been amplified by multiple primers.

In the second stage PCR, primers on the C side annealed to the C segment with a 5′ tail that contained the sequence primer and the P5 sequence used for cluster formation in the Illumina Genome Analyzer sequencer. Primers on the V side annealed to the V segment with a 5′ tail that contained the sequence primer and the P7 sequence used for cluster formation. For each sample, one pair of primers is used in the second stage. On the C side, it is always the same primer. On the V side, it is one of a set of primers which differs by a 6 base index. Specifically, the primers on the V side of the amplification constituted one of a set of primers, each of which had a 3′ region that annealed to the overhang sequence appended in the first reaction but which further contained one of multiple 6 base pair indices that allowed for sample multiplexing on the sequencer. Each of these primers further contained a 5′ tail with the P7 sequence used for cluster formation in the Illumina Genome Analyzer sequencer.

First stage PCR was carried out using a high fidelity polymerase (AccuPrime, Life Technologies) for 16 cycles. A second stage PCR was carried out for 22 cycles on 1/100 of the amplification products from the first stage PCR. Each sample contained a unique identifying tag. Samples were pooled and purified using the QlAquick PCR purification kit (Qiagen). Cluster formation and sequencing in both directions was carried out per the manufacturer protocol (Illumina, Inc., La Jolla, Calif.). Specifically, three sequencing reactions were performed. First 115 bp were sequenced from the C side sufficient to sequence through the junctional sequence from C to V. At this point, the synthesized strand was denatured and washed off. A second sequencing primer was annealed that allowed the sample index to be sequenced for 6 cycles to identify the sample. At this point the reverse complement strand was generated per the Illumina protocol. A final sequencing read of 95 bp was obtained from the V- to-C direction providing ample sequence to map the V segment accurately. The sequencing data was then analyzed to determine the clonotype sequences, as described above.

Clonotype Determination. A clonotype was defined when at least 2 identical sequence reads were obtained. Briefly, after exclusion of low quality reads, sequence data were then analyzed to determine the clonotype sequences including mapping to germline V and J consensus sequences. First, the sample index sequences were used to identify which of the sequences originate from which of the pooled samples. Sequences whose index were not a perfect match to one of the indices used in a specific run were excluded. Next the forward read was used to map the J segment. Since all the sequences started from the same position of the J segments, all the J segments started at a predefined sequencing position. The first 25 bp of the J segments were used to map the J segment. Any read with more than 5 high quality mismatches to the known J segments was excluded from further analysis.

After J segment identification, V segments were mapped. The reverse read was used for this purpose. First, the V primer was mapped and excluded. Thereafter, the next 70 bases of the reverse read were mapped to the known V segments. Reads that did not map to J and V segments were excluded. The next step in mapping involved identifying the frame that related the forward and reverse reads and this allowed a continuous sequence from J to V to be constructed. This was done using the last 15 bases of the forward read which were reliably within the V segment regardless of NDN length. While these bases could be of relatively lower sequence quality as they were at the terminal end of a long read, they could be used to map within a single identified V segment in order to identify the position at which the two reads could be joined. Finally, the known V and J sequences to which the reads map were used to identify the point in the forward read at which the sequences at the junctions diverged from these mapped segments.

Following clonotype determination, relative frequencies of the clonotypes were analyzed in the unsorted, antigen-specific and non-antigen-specific populations. Clonotype frequency comparisons between two samples are shown in several figures. Clonotypes that are present in sample A but not in sample B (where frequencies in sample A and B are being compared) are represented to have the frequency of a clonotype with a single read in sample B. Therefore the frequency of the missing clonotype in a sample depends on the sequencing depth of a particular sample. In these cases where a clonotype is missing in a sample, because the frequency of a single read is assigned to these clonotypes, the observed frequency is overestimated. Thus, in the vast majority of these cases, the real clonotype frequency is likely to be overestimated. Clonotypes absent in both samples appear where the axes intersect. Clonotypes present in one sample but not the other however lie along either the x- or y-axis.

Clonotypes from the antigen-specific T cell analyses were selected based on the following three criteria. First, clonotypes had frequencies that were at least 10-fold increased in sorted antigen-specific versus non-antigen-specific or unsorted cells, e.g. FIG. 6 panels A and B. Second, these clonotypes were also at lower frequency in sorted “not antigen-specific” cells compared to unsorted cells if greater than 1/100,000 in order to avoid sub-sampling error (Poisson noise) associated with very low frequency clonotypes in sorted samples. Third, because of the limited number of input antigen-specific cells after sorting (generally less than<30,000 cells), a greater than ‘20-cell’ equivalent threshold was applied based on the relatively low input number of cells in these samples. This minimum threshold enabled exclusion of clonotypes that appeared enriched in sorted antigen-specific samples but were due only to the presence of one or a few cells in the sample. For example, consider a sorted population of 10,000 pentamer+ cells out of a sample with a million T cells. If a single cell with a frequency of 1 per million in the unsorted sample is incidentally sorted in the pentamer+ sample, its frequency in the sorted sample will be 1/10,000 and would appear to be 100 fold enriched in the pentamer+ sample compared to the unsorted sample. To ameliorate this problem, a clonotype was required to represent 20 cells in the sorted pentamer+ sample. Specifically, the log10 frequency threshold required in the pentamer+ sample was calculated as log10(1/(n/20)), where n is the number of input sorted cells for that sample as determined by flow cytometry (For example, in FIG. 7 panel A, 16,281 is number of input sorted cells and the calculated threshold frequency is 10^(−2.9)). Those sequences meeting the three criteria outlined above were classified as antigen-specific T cell clonotypes.

Results. The combination of sorting and sequencing was used to identify antigen-specific clonotypes in an individual with a known positive response to a cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen. First, TCRβ sequencing was paired with a multimer-based immune assay to validate this method for identification of antigen-specific CD8 TCRβ clonotypes. A peptide derived from CMV pp65(495-404) (referred to herein as the “pp65₄₉₅ peptide”) is an HLA-A*0201 restricted immunodominant epitope that induces responses in CMV-positive individuals. To directly identify T cells specific to this antigen, a commercially available pentamer reagent containing pp65₄₉₅ peptide bound to an MHC molecule was used. In principle, all of the T cells carrying the sequences that bind the pentamer should be detected irrespective of their functional potential. pp65₄₉₅-specific CD8 T cells were identified by sequencing the TCRβ repertoire of cells that were sorted based on pentamer binding (pentamer+).

Frozen PBMCs were obtained from an individual with a characterized response to pp65₄₉₅ by ELISPOT assay. Two populations were sorted from this individual: CD8 pentamer+ and pentamer− T cells. Nucleic acids encoding TCRβ clonotypes were sequenced in these two populations along with the unsorted PBMC sample, so that the relative frequencies of the clonotypes in each population could be determined. Three criteria were used to identify pp65₄₉₅-specific TCRβ clonotypes: 1) Clonotypes that are enriched (i.e. have substantially higher frequency) in the pentamer+ population compared to the pentamer− population; 2) Clonotypes that are enriched in the pentamer+ population compared to the unsorted sample; and 3) Clonotypes that are de-enriched (i.e. have lower frequency) in the pentamer− population compared to the unsorted sample.

Eight clonotypes were identified that are substantially enriched (˜1,000 fold) in the pentamer+ compared to the pentamer− population (FIG. 6 panel A). The frequencies of these clonotypes were compared in the pentamer+ and the unsorted populations (FIG. 6 panel B). The highest of these clonotypes has a frequency of 0.81% in the unsorted sample, which is consistent with the expected elevated response to pp65₄₉₅ in this individual. However, several of the other clonotypes were present at a level below 10⁻⁴. The 8 clonotypes are enriched in the pentamer+ population by a factor of ˜100 fold compared to their frequency in unsorted PBMC.

PBMCs from the same individual were used to assess whether immune assays that rely on indirect or functional changes in the T cells following antigen stimulation are effective for identification of pp65₄₉₅-specific CD8 TCRβ clonotypes. PBMCs were stimulated with pp65₄₉₅ followed by flow cytometry 18 hours after the stimulation to capture cells based on expression of the activation marker CD137. The TCRβ repertoire was amplified and sequenced from sorted CD137+ and CD137− cells. The criteria for identification of pp65₄₉₅-specific TCRβ clonotypes with this assay was similar to that used in the pentamer assay. Specifically, pp65₄₉₅-specific TCRβ clonotypes were expected to be present at much higher frequencies in the CD137+ population compared to the CD137− population.

Nine clonotypes were identified that are substantially enriched (˜1,000 fold) in the CD137+ population compared to the CD137− population (FIG. 7 panel A). The frequency of these clonotypes in the unsorted sample ranged from as high as 0.81% to as low as 0.004% (FIG. 7 panel B). These clonotypes were enriched in the CD137+ population compared to the unsorted PBMC sample by ˜100 fold. To ensure that these cells were activated due to stimulation with the peptide, a control experiment was performed with no peptide. None of the 9 clonotypes that were enriched with the peptide in the CD137+ population enriched following incubation without peptide in CD137+ cells (FIG. 7 panel C).

Specific clonotypes identified by the pentamer and CD137 assays were compared and found to substantially overlap. All 8 clonotypes that were identified with the pentamer assay were also identified by CD137 assay (FIG. 8 panel A), although an additional clonotype was identified by the CD137 assay that was not identified in the pentamer assay.

A third functional assay for identification of antigen-specific clonotypes was conducted by combining capture of proliferating cells following incubation with pp65₄₉₅ peptide and repertoire sequencing. Cells were labeled with CFSE and incubated with either pp65₄₉₅ or no peptide for 6 days. Proliferating CD8 cells were then sorted based on dilution of CFSE. pp65₄₉₅-specific clonotypes were identified based on their relative frequency in the CFSE^(low) population compared to that of fresh unsorted PBMCs.

Sixteen clonotypes were identified that were substantially increased in the CFSE^(low) population, and the frequency of some of the identified clonotypes was below 10⁻⁵ (FIG. 9 panel A). An identical proliferation assay was used that lacked the peptide as a control. None of the 16 clonotypes identified by the proliferation assay were enriched in the CFSE^(low) population when no peptide was used (FIG. 9 panel B).

One advantage to using indirect immune monitoring assays compared to pentamer reagents is the ability to assess responses to more than one peptide antigen at the same time. A pool of 138 peptides spanning the entire pp65 protein (herein referred to as pp65pool) was used to stimulate PBMCs in the proliferation assay to identify pp65pool-specific T cells. Repertoire analysis of proliferating cells following pp65pool incubation enabled identification of 25 clonotypes. Of these 25 clonotypes identified using the pp65pool, 12 of these were also deemed antigen-specific with the single pp65₄₉₅ peptide, demonstrating the repeatability of the approach.

Seven of eight clonotypes identified by the pentamer assay were identified in the pp65pool proliferation assay, demonstrating that the use of peptide pool does not substantially decrease sensitivity. In addition the proliferation assay with the pp65pool enabled identification of additional clonotypes that are presumably specific to other peptides within the pool. Most of the additional clonotypes identified with the pp65pool were not enriched in the pentamer+ population (FIG. 9 panel D) consistent with them being not specific to the pp65₄₉₅ peptide.

While the present invention has been described with reference to several particular example embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that many changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The present invention is applicable to a variety of sensor implementations and other subject matter, in addition to those discussed above.

Definitions

Unless otherwise specifically defined herein, terms and symbols of nucleic acid chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology used herein follow those of standard treatises and texts in the field, e.g. Kornberg and Baker, DNA Replication, Second Edition (W. H. Freeman, New York, 1992); Lehninger, Biochemistry, Second Edition (Worth Publishers, New York, 1975); Strachan and Read, Human Molecular Genetics, Second Edition (Wiley-Liss, New York, 1999); Abbas et al, Cellular and Molecular Immunology, 6^(th) edition (Saunders, 2007).

“Activation” or “immune activation” or “activated”, especially in reference to T-cells, means a phase of an adaptive immune response that follows the antigen recognition phase (during which antigen-specific lymphocytes bind to antigens) and is characterized by proliferation of lymphocytes and their differentiation into effector cells, e.g. Abbas et al, Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Fourth Edition, (W. B. Saunders Company, 2000). Activation of T cells may be associated with secretion of certain cytokines that are detectable using conventional assays, such as an ELISPOT assay, and may be associated with the expression of characteristic cell surface markers, such as CD25, CD134, CD69, CD137, CD154, or the like, e.g. Gratama et al, Cytometry A, 73A: 971-974 (2008).

“Aligning” means a method of comparing a test sequence, such as a sequence read, to one or more reference sequences to determine which reference sequence or which portion of a reference sequence is closest based on some sequence distance measure. An exemplary method of aligning nucleotide sequences is the Smith Waterman algorithm. Distance measures may include Hamming distance, Levenshtein distance, or the like. Distance measures may include a component related to the quality values of nucleotides of the sequences being compared.

“Amplicon” means the product of a polynucleotide amplification reaction; that is, a clonal population of polynucleotides, which may be single stranded or double stranded, which are replicated from one or more starting sequences. The one or more starting sequences may be one or more copies of the same sequence, or they may be a mixture of different sequences. Preferably, amplicons are formed by the amplification of a single starting sequence. Amplicons may be produced by a variety of amplification reactions whose products comprise replicates of the one or more starting, or target, nucleic acids. In one aspect, amplification reactions producing amplicons are “template-driven” in that base pairing of reactants, either nucleotides or oligonucleotides, have complements in a template polynucleotide that are required for the creation of reaction products. In one aspect, template-driven reactions are primer extensions with a nucleic acid polymerase or oligonucleotide ligations with a nucleic acid ligase. Such reactions include, but are not limited to, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), linear polymerase reactions, nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBAs), rolling circle amplifications, and the like, disclosed in the following references that are incorporated herein by reference: Mullis et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195; 4,965,188; 4,683,202; 4,800,159 (PCR); Gelfand et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,015 (real-time PCR with “taqman” probes); Wittwer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,670; Kacian et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,491 (“NASBA”); Lizardi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,033; Aono et al, Japanese patent publ. JP 4-262799 (rolling circle amplification); and the like. In one aspect, amplicons of the invention are produced by PCRs. An amplification reaction may be a “real-time” amplification if a detection chemistry is available that permits a reaction product to be measured as the amplification reaction progresses, e.g. “real-time PCR” described below, or “real-time NASBA” as described in Leone et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 26: 2150-2155 (1998), and like references. As used herein, the term “amplifying” means performing an amplification reaction. A “reaction mixture” means a solution containing all the necessary reactants for performing a reaction, which may include, but not be limited to, buffering agents to maintain pH at a selected level during a reaction, salts, co-factors, scavengers, and the like.

“Clonotype” means a recombined nucleotide sequence of a lymphocyte which encodes an immune receptor or a portion thereof. More particularly, clonotype means a recombined nucleotide sequence of a T cell or B cell which encodes a T cell receptor (TCR) or B cell receptor (BCR), or a portion thereof. In various embodiments, clonotypes may encode all or a portion of a VDJ rearrangement of IgH, a DJ rearrangement of IgH, a VJ rearrangement of IgK, a VJ rearrangement of IgL, a VDJ rearrangement of TCR β, a DJ rearrangement of TCR β, a VJ rearrangement of TCR α, a VJ rearrangement of TCR γ, a VDJ rearrangement of TCR δ, a VD rearrangement of TCR δ, a Kde-V rearrangement, or the like. Clonotypes may also encode translocation breakpoint regions involving immune receptor genes, such as Bcl1-IgH or Bcl1-IgH. In one aspect, clonotypes have sequences that are sufficiently long to represent or reflect the diversity of the immune molecules that they are derived from; consequently, clonotypes may vary widely in length. In some embodiments, clonotypes have lengths in the range of from 25 to 400 nucleotides; in other embodiments, clonotypes have lengths in the range of from 25 to 200 nucleotides.

“Clonotype profile” means a listing of distinct clonotypes and their relative abundances that are derived from a population of lymphocytes. Typically, the population of lymphocytes are obtained from a tissue sample. The term “clonotype profile” is related to, but more general than, the immunology concept of immune “repertoire” as described in references, such as the following: Arstila et al, Science, 286: 958-961 (1999); Yassai et al, Immunogenetics, 61: 493-502 (2009); Kedzierska et al, Mol. Immunol., 45(3): 607-618 (2008); and the like. The term “clonotype profile” includes a wide variety of lists and abundances of rearranged immune receptor-encoding nucleic acids, which may be derived from selected subsets of lymphocytes (e.g. tissue-infiltrating lymphocytes, immunophenotypic subsets, or the like), or which may encode portions of immune receptors that have reduced diversity as compared to full immune receptors. In some embodiments, clonotype profiles may comprise at least 10³ distinct clonotypes; in other embodiments, clonotype profiles may comprise at least 10⁴ distinct clonotypes; in other embodiments, clonotype profiles may comprise at least 10⁵ distinct clonotypes; in other embodiments, clonotype profiles may comprise at least 10⁶ distinct clonotypes. In such embodiments, such clonotype profiles may further comprise abundances or relative frequencies of each of the distinct clonotypes.

In one aspect, a clonotype profile is a set of distinct recombined nucleotide sequences (with their abundances) that encode T cell receptors (TCRs) or B cell receptors (BCRs), or fragments thereof, respectively, in a population of lymphocytes of an individual, wherein the nucleotide sequences of the set have a one-to-one correspondence with distinct lymphocytes or their clonal subpopulations for substantially all of the lymphocytes of the population. In one aspect, nucleic acid segments defining clonotypes are selected so that their diversity (i.e. the number of distinct nucleic acid sequences in the set) is large enough so that substantially every T cell or B cell or clone thereof in an individual carries a unique nucleic acid sequence of such repertoire. That is, preferably each different clone of a sample has different clonotype. In other aspects of the invention, the population of lymphocytes corresponding to a repertoire may be circulating B cells, or may be circulating T cells, or may be subpopulations of either of the foregoing populations, including but not limited to, CD4+ T cells, or CD8+ T cells, or other subpopulations defined by cell surface markers, or the like. Such subpopulations may be acquired by taking samples from particular tissues, e.g. bone marrow, or lymph nodes, or the like, or by sorting or enriching cells from a sample (such as peripheral blood) based on one or more cell surface markers, size, morphology, or the like. In still other aspects, the population of lymphocytes corresponding to a repertoire may be derived from disease tissues, such as a tumor tissue, an infected tissue, or the like. In one embodiment, a clonotype profile comprising human TCR β chains or fragments thereof comprises a number of distinct nucleotide sequences in the range of from 0.1×10⁶ to 1.8×10⁶, or in the range of from 0.5×10⁶ to 1.5×10⁶, or in the range of from 0.8×10⁶ to 1.2×10⁶. In another embodiment, a clonotype profile comprising human IgH chains or fragments thereof comprises a number of distinct nucleotide sequences in the range of from 0.1×10⁶ to 1.8×10⁶, or in the range of from 0.5×10⁶ to 1.5×10⁶, or in the range of from 0.8×10⁶ to 1.2×10⁶.

In a particular embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a set of nucleotide sequences encoding substantially all segments of the V(D)J region of an IgH chain. In one aspect, “substantially all” as used herein means every segment having a relative abundance of 0.001 percent or higher; or in another aspect, “substantially all” as used herein means every segment having a relative abundance of 0.0001 percent or higher. In another particular embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a set of nucleotide sequences that encodes substantially all segments of the V(D)J region of a TCR β chain. In another embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a set of nucleotide sequences having lengths in the range of from 25-200 nucleotides and including segments of the V, D, and J regions of a TCR β chain. In another embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a set of nucleotide sequences having lengths in the range of from 25-200 nucleotides and including segments of the V, D, and J regions of an IgH chain. In another embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a number of distinct nucleotide sequences that is substantially equivalent to the number of lymphocytes expressing a distinct IgH chain. In another embodiment, a clonotype profile of the invention comprises a number of distinct nucleotide sequences that is substantially equivalent to the number of lymphocytes expressing a distinct TCR β chain. In still another embodiment, “substantially equivalent” means that with ninety-nine percent probability a clonotype profile will include a nucleotide sequence encoding an IgH or TCR β or portion thereof carried or expressed by every lymphocyte of a population of an individual at a frequency of 0.001 percent or greater. In still another embodiment, “substantially equivalent” means that with ninety-nine percent probability a repertoire of nucleotide sequences will include a nucleotide sequence encoding an IgH or TCR β or portion thereof carried or expressed by every lymphocyte present at a frequency of 0.0001 percent or greater. In some embodiments, clonotype profiles are derived from samples comprising from 10³ to 10⁷ lymphocytes. Such numbers of lymphocytes may be obtained from peripheral blood samples of from 1-10 mL.

“Coalescing” means treating two candidate clonotypes with sequence differences as the same by determining that such differences are due to experimental or measurement error and not due to genuine biological differences. In one aspect, a sequence of a higher frequency candidate clonotype is compared to that of a lower frequency candidate clonotype and if predetermined criteria are satisfied then the number of lower frequency candidate clonotypes is added to that of the higher frequency candidate clonotype and the lower frequency candidate clonotype is thereafter disregarded. That is, the read counts associated with the lower frequency candidate clonotype are added to those of the higher frequency candidate clonotype.

“Complementarity determining regions” (CDRs) mean regions of an immunoglobulin (i.e., antibody) or T cell receptor where the molecule complements an antigen's conformation, thereby determining the molecule's specificity and contact with a specific antigen. T cell receptors and immunoglobulins each have three CDRs: CDR1 and CDR2 are found in the variable (V) domain, and CDR3 includes some of V, all of diverse (D) (heavy chains only) and joint (J), and some of the constant (C) domains.

“Data structure” means an organization of information, usually in a computer or memory device, for better algorithm efficiency. Exemplary data structures include queues, stacks, linked lists, heaps, hash tables, arrays, trees, and the like. Data structures may have substructures that correspond to units of information or to subsets of related information. For example, arrays have rows and columns of entries; trees have nodes, branches, subtrees, and leaves; or the like. In one aspect, a data structure used herein is a sequence tree, an array or a hash table.

“Microfluidics device” means an integrated system of one or more chambers, ports, and channels that are interconnected and in fluid communication and designed for carrying out an analytical reaction or process, either alone or in cooperation with an appliance or instrument that provides support functions, such as sample introduction, fluid and/or reagent driving means, temperature control, detection systems, data collection and/or integration systems, and the like. Microfluidics devices may further include valves, pumps, and specialized functional coatings on interior walls, e.g. to prevent adsorption of sample components or reactants, facilitate reagent movement by electroosmosis, or the like. Such devices are usually fabricated in or as a solid substrate, which may be glass, plastic, or other solid polymeric materials, and typically have a planar format for ease of detecting and monitoring sample and reagent movement, especially via optical or electrochemical methods. Features of a microfluidic device usually have cross-sectional dimensions of less than a few hundred square micrometers and passages typically have capillary dimensions, e.g. having maximal cross-sectional dimensions of from about 500 μm to about 0.1 μm. Microfluidics devices typically have volume capacities in the range of from 1 μL to a few nL, e.g. 10-100 nL. The fabrication and operation of microfluidics devices are well-known in the art as exemplified by the following references that are incorporated by reference: Ramsey, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,001,229; 5,858,195; 6,010,607; and 6,033,546; Soane et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,126,022 and 6,054,034; Nelson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,613,525; Maher et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,399,952; Ricco et al, International patent publication WO 02/24322; Bjornson et al, International patent publication WO 99/19717; Wilding et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,587,128; 5,498,392; Sia et al, Electrophoresis, 24: 3563-3576 (2003

“Percent homologous,” “percent identical,” or like terms used in reference to the comparison of a reference sequence and another sequence (“comparison sequence”) mean that in an optimal alignment between the two sequences, the comparison sequence is identical to the reference sequence in a number of subunit positions equivalent to the indicated percentage, the subunits being nucleotides for polynucleotide comparisons or amino acids for polypeptide comparisons. As used herein, an “optimal alignment” of sequences being compared is one that maximizes matches between subunits and minimizes the number of gaps employed in constructing an alignment. Percent identities may be determined with commercially available implementations of algorithms, such as that described by Needleman and Wunsch, J. Mol. Biol., 48: 443-453 (1970)(“GAP” program of Wisconsin Sequence Analysis Package, Genetics Computer Group, Madison, Wis.), or the like. Other software packages in the art for constructing alignments and calculating percentage identity or other measures of similarity include the “BestFit” program, based on the algorithm of Smith and Waterman, Advances in Applied Mathematics, 2: 482-489 (1981) (Wisconsin Sequence Analysis Package, Genetics Computer Group, Madison, Wis.). In other words, for example, to obtain a polynucleotide having a nucleotide sequence at least 95 percent identical to a reference nucleotide sequence, up to five percent of the nucleotides in the reference sequence may be deleted or substituted with another nucleotide, or a number of nucleotides up to five percent of the total number of nucleotides in the reference sequence may be inserted into the reference sequence.

“Polymerase chain reaction,” or “PCR,” means a reaction for the in vitro amplification of specific DNA sequences by the simultaneous primer extension of complementary strands of DNA. In other words, PCR is a reaction for making multiple copies or replicates of a target nucleic acid flanked by primer binding sites, such reaction comprising one or more repetitions of the following steps: (i) denaturing the target nucleic acid, (ii) annealing primers to the primer binding sites, and (iii) extending the primers by a nucleic acid polymerase in the presence of nucleoside triphosphates. Usually, the reaction is cycled through different temperatures optimized for each step in a thermal cycler instrument. Particular temperatures, durations at each step, and rates of change between steps depend on many factors well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art, e.g. exemplified by the references: McPherson et al, editors, PCR: A Practical Approach and PCR2: A Practical Approach (IRL Press, Oxford, 1991 and 1995, respectively). For example, in a conventional PCR using Taq DNA polymerase, a double stranded target nucleic acid may be denatured at a temperature>90° C., primers annealed at a temperature in the range 50-75° C., and primers extended at a temperature in the range 72-78° C.

The term “PCR” encompasses derivative forms of the reaction, including but not limited to, RT-PCR, real-time PCR, nested PCR, quantitative PCR, multiplexed PCR, and the like. Reaction volumes range from a few hundred nanoliters, e.g. 200 nL, to a few hundred μL, e.g. 200 μL. “Reverse transcription PCR,” or “RT-PCR,” means a PCR that is preceded by a reverse transcription reaction that converts a target RNA to a complementary single stranded DNA, which is then amplified, e.g. Tecott et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,038, which patent is incorporated herein by reference. “Real-time PCR” means a PCR for which the amount of reaction product, i.e. amplicon, is monitored as the reaction proceeds. There are many forms of real-time PCR that differ mainly in the detection chemistries used for monitoring the reaction product, e.g. Gelfand et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,015 (“taqman”); Wittwer et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,174,670 and 6,569,627 (intercalating dyes); Tyagi et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,517 (molecular beacons); which patents are incorporated herein by reference. Detection chemistries for real-time PCR are reviewed in Mackay et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 30: 1292-1305 (2002), which is also incorporated herein by reference. “Nested PCR” means a two-stage PCR wherein the amplicon of a first PCR becomes the sample for a second PCR using a new set of primers, at least one of which binds to an interior location of the first amplicon. As used herein, “initial primers” in reference to a nested amplification reaction mean the primers used to generate a first amplicon, and “secondary primers” mean the one or more primers used to generate a second, or nested, amplicon. “Multiplexed PCR” means a PCR wherein multiple target sequences (or a single target sequence and one or more reference sequences) are simultaneously carried out in the same reaction mixture, e.g. Bernard et al, Anal. Biochem., 273: 221-228 (1999)(two-color real-time PCR). Usually, distinct sets of primers are employed for each sequence being amplified. Typically, the number of target sequences in a multiplex PCR is in the range of from 2 to 50, or from 2 to 40, or from 2 to 30. “Quantitative PCR” means a PCR designed to measure the abundance of one or more specific target sequences in a sample or specimen. Quantitative PCR includes both absolute quantitation and relative quantitation of such target sequences. Quantitative measurements are made using one or more reference sequences or internal standards that may be assayed separately or together with a target sequence. The reference sequence may be endogenous or exogenous to a sample or specimen, and in the latter case, may comprise one or more competitor templates. Typical endogenous reference sequences include segments of transcripts of the following genes: β-actin, GAPDH, β₂-microglobulin, ribosomal RNA, and the like. Techniques for quantitative PCR are well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art, as exemplified in the following references that are incorporated by reference: Freeman et al, Biotechniques, 26: 112-126 (1999); Becker-Andre et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 17: 9437-9447 (1989); Zimmerman et al, Biotechniques, 21: 268-279 (1996); Diviacco et al, Gene, 122: 3013-3020 (1992); Becker-Andre et al, Nucleic Acids Research, 17: 9437-9446 (1989); and the like.

“Polymerase cycling assembly” or “PCA” reaction (also referred to herein as “linked PCR”) means a PCR that comprises at least one pair of outer primers and at least one pair of inner primers. An inner primer has a 3′ portion that is complementary to a target nucleic acid (or its complement) and a 5′ portion that is complementary to the 5′ portion of another inner primer corresponding to a different target nucleic acid.

“Primer” means an oligonucleotide, either natural or synthetic that is capable, upon forming a duplex with a polynucleotide template, of acting as a point of initiation of nucleic acid synthesis and being extended from its 3′ end along the template so that an extended duplex is formed. Extension of a primer is usually carried out with a nucleic acid polymerase, such as a DNA or RNA polymerase. The sequence of nucleotides added in the extension process is determined by the sequence of the template polynucleotide. Usually primers are extended by a DNA polymerase. Primers usually have a length in the range of from 14 to 40 nucleotides, or in the range of from 18 to 36 nucleotides. Primers are employed in a variety of nucleic amplification reactions, for example, linear amplification reactions using a single primer, or polymerase chain reactions, employing two or more primers. Guidance for selecting the lengths and sequences of primers for particular applications is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, as evidenced by the following references that are incorporated by reference: Dieffenbach, editor, PCR Primer: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) Edition (Cold Spring Harbor Press, New York, 2003).

“Quality score” means a measure of the probability that a base assignment at a particular sequence location is correct. A variety methods are well known to those of ordinary skill for calculating quality scores for particular circumstances, such as, for bases called as a result of different sequencing chemistries, detection systems, base-calling algorithms, and so on. Generally, quality score values are monotonically related to probabilities of correct base calling. For example, a quality score, or Q, of 10 may mean that there is a 90 percent chance that a base is called correctly, a Q of 20 may mean that there is a 99 percent chance that a base is called correctly, and so on. For some sequencing platforms, particularly those using sequencing-by-synthesis chemistries, average quality scores decrease as a function of sequence read length, so that quality scores at the beginning of a sequence read are higher than those at the end of a sequence read, such declines being due to phenomena such as incomplete extensions, carry forward extensions, loss of template, loss of polymerase, capping failures, deprotection failures, and the like.

“Sequence read” means a sequence of nucleotides determined from a sequence or stream of data generated by a sequencing technique, which determination is made, for example, by means of base-calling software associated with the technique, e.g. base-calling software from a commercial provider of a DNA sequencing platform. A sequence read usually includes quality scores for each nucleotide in the sequence. Typically, sequence reads are made by extending a primer along a template nucleic acid, e.g. with a DNA polymerase or a DNA ligase. Data is generated by recording signals, such as optical, chemical (e.g. pH change), or electrical signals, associated with such extension. Such initial data is converted into a sequence read.

“Sequence tag” (or “tag”) or “barcode” means an oligonucleotide that is attached, usually via a covalent bond, to another molecule or molecular complex and that is used to identify and/or track the other molecule in a reaction or a series of reactions. Sequence tags may vary widely in size and compositions; the following references, which are incorporated herein by reference, provide guidance for selecting sets of sequence tags appropriate for particular embodiments: Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,400; Brenner and Macevicz, U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,897; Brenner et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 97: 1665-1670 (2000); Church et al, European patent publication 0 303 459; Shoemaker et al, Nature Genetics, 14: 450-456 (1996); Morris et al, European patent publication 0799897A1; Wallace, U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,179; and the like. Lengths and compositions of sequence tags can vary widely, and the selection of particular lengths and/or compositions depends on several factors including, without limitation, how tags are used to generate a readout, e.g. via a hybridization reaction or via an enzymatic reaction, such as amplification and sequencing; whether they are labeled, e.g. with a fluorescent dye or the like; the number of distinguishable sequence tags required to unambiguously identify a set of molecules of interest, and the like, and how different must tags of a set be in order to ensure reliable identification, e.g. freedom from cross hybridization, misidentification from sequencing errors, or the like. In some embodiments, sequence tags may each have a length within a range of from 6 to 36 nucleotides, or from 4 to 30 nucleotides, or from 8 to 40 nucleotides, or from 6 to 50 nucleotides, respectively; provided, however, that the term “sequence tag” may also be used in reference to a sequence tag of the foregoing lengths sandwiched between a pair of primers that may be used to amplify or otherwise manipulate the sequence tag, for example, in order to identify it by DNA sequencing. In one aspect, sets of sequence tags are used wherein each sequence tag of a set has a unique nucleotide sequence that differs from that of every other tag of the same set by a plurality of bases; in some embodiments, such plurality is at least three bases; in another aspect, sets of sequence tags are used wherein the sequence of each tag of a set differs front that of every other tag of the same set by at least four bases.

“Sequence tree” means a tree data structure for representing nucleotide sequences. In one aspect, a tree data structure of the invention is a rooted directed tree comprising nodes and edges that do not include cycles, or cyclical pathways. Edges from nodes of tree data structures of the invention are usually ordered. Nodes and/or edges are structures that may contain, or be associated with, a value. Each node in a tree has zero or more child nodes, which by convention are shown below it in the tree. A node that has a child is called the child's parent node. A node has at most one parent. Nodes that do not have any children are called leaf nodes. The topmost node in a tree is called the root node. Being the topmost node, the root node will not have parents. It is the node at which operations on the tree commonly begin (although some algorithms begin with the leaf nodes and work up ending at the root). All other nodes can be reached from it by following edges or links. 

1. A method for determining the sequence of one or more T-cell receptor (TCR) chain(s) or a portion thereof specific for one or more antigens of interest in a sample comprising T cells specific for a plurality of antigens, the method comprising the steps of: (a) sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding one or more TCR chain(s) or a portion thereof from a first portion of the sample to generate a first plurality of sequence reads obtained from T cells prior to antigen exposure of the sample, wherein the sequencing is high-throughput sequencing; (b) partitioning a second portion of the sample comprising T cells into a plurality of reaction mixtures and exposing each reaction mixture of the plurality of reaction mixtures to a plurality of antigens, wherein each antigen of said plurality of antigens is presented by antigen presenting cells in a unique and predetermined subplurality of the plurality of reaction mixtures; (c) for each reaction mixture in the plurality of reaction mixtures, separating T cells that interact with one or more antigens in the plurality of antigens from the reaction mixture to obtain a subset of antigen-specific T cells, wherein each of the subsets of antigen-specific T cells corresponds to one reaction mixture in the plurality of reaction mixtures; (d) for each of the subsets of antigen-specific T cells separated in step (c), sequencing recombined nucleic acids encoding one or more TCR chain(s) or a portion thereof to generate a plurality of sequence reads obtained from each of the subsets of antigen-specific T cells, wherein the sequencing is high-throughput sequencing; (e) for each reaction mixture in the plurality of reaction mixtures, identifying a plurality of antigen-specific TCR chains by comparing the plurality of sequence reads obtained from each of the subsets of antigen-specific T cells in step (d) to the first plurality of sequence reads obtained from unstimulated T cells in step (a), wherein the frequency of the sequence reads for the antigen-specific TCR chains is increased in the plurality of sequence reads obtained from the subsets of antigen-specific T cells compared to the frequency of sequence reads for the antigen-specific TCR chains in the first plurality of sequence reads obtained from unstimulated T cells; and (f) for each of the one or more antigens of interest, identifying one or more TCR chains specific for the antigen of interest from the one or more TCR chains identified in step (e), wherein the frequency of the sequence reads for the one or more TCR chains specific for the antigen of interest is increased in the plurality of sequence reads obtained from each of the subsets of antigen-specific T cells in which the antigen of interest was present in the corresponding reaction mixture.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the high throughput sequencing includes isolating individual molecules of said recombined nucleic acids on a solid surface and sequencing the isolated individual molecules to provide said sequence reads.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising coalescing the plurality of sequence reads obtained from the subsets of antigen-specific T cells to identify each of said antigen-specific TCR chains or portions thereof.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of separating is implemented with an antigen reagent capable of forming a complex with one or more T cells specific for one or more of the plurality of antigens or a binding compound specific for an activation marker present on one or more T cells specific for one or more of the plurality of antigens.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein said antigen reagent is a peptide-MHC multimer complex wherein the peptide of the complex is derived from said antigen of interest.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein said sample comprises peripheral blood or is derived from peripheral blood.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of antigens present in the plurality of antigens is between 2 to 1000 antigens.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of antigen present in the plurality of antigens is at least
 4. 